The Unknown Tale
by koalababay
Summary: Confusion ensues when Cloud finds out that a mysterious young woman is searching for him. Who is she? What does she want with Cloud? There may be something more going on underneath the surface that no one even dared to think about...CxT YxV
1. Disturbances

Hey Everyone! This is my first fanfiction ever!! So, yeah...I was finally motivated to write my own after reading some really awesome ones on this site. Well...enjoy. Oh, and just to help, it's Post-DoC.

The ages are-Cloud: 25, Tifa: 24, Barret: 39, Cid: 36, Vincent: still looks 27/28 , Nanaki: ?, Yuffie: 20, and Shelke still looks like she's 14 or so.

**Disclaimer**: I don't own FFVII...darn

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Chapter 1: Disturbances

"Aaaw man! Not again!" Yuffie grumbled. She and Tifa decided to close Seventh Heaven for a day for their own fun and relaxation, which ended up resulting in them just choosing to lay around and watch TV all day...which was a first for them, actually. In that single day, however, 7 breaking news reports had interrupted their regular TV programming. "All I wanted to do was relax and watch some good ol' reality TV!! Is that so much to ask?" Yuffie pleaded while crawling closer to the inanimate object. "If I have to see that stupid news anchor again, I'll pull him out of the screen and shove my Conformer up his-"

"Yuffie!!" Tifa chided while giving the ninja an almost pleading look. "Please, relax! I want to hear the latest report. They haven't really said much except that there've been 'disturbances' in some of the town's on the western continent. I wonder what's going on..."

"Tifa, I'm sure it's fine." Cloud tried to comfort her. He chose to take the day off as well, considering his Strife Delivery Service has delivery boys other than just him, of course. "Ever since Meteor...and the Kadaj incident...and the whole Deepground ordeal..." he trailed off.

"Yeah, yeah, Cloud, we get it! The world is paranoid! Every little thing sends them over the edge!" Yuffie exclaimed.

"Can you blame them?" Tifa intervened. "There have been more life or death situations that the people on this planet have had to endure in the last few years than the planet has had to endure in its entire life!"

A frantic-looking news anchor appeared on the screen. He was middle-aged, with blond hair and thick horn-rimmed glasses. He also appeared to be wearing a tie that was too tight for him because he kept nervously readjusting it. After clearing his throat, he finally began speaking about the latest disturbance at another city's item and materia shops.

"--It seems as though all of these attempted robberies are connected. Eyewitnesses have claimed that the person responsible for each of these disturbances is a young woman. She was seen wielding twin katanas. One witness even recalls that she was wearing black shorts with a dark orange tank top-" he paused for a minute while his mind caught up to what he was actually reading on the teleprompter. "-Oh, yes. And she has auburn-colored hair. Just to repeat earlier news reports, the disturbances have been at the following towns in this order: Nibelheim, Corel, Costa Del Sol, then Junon. If anyone sees this woman again please contact us at--"

"They're still not telling us what these 'disturbances' are!" Tifa practically yelled. "How are we supposed to help them if we don't know what's going on?"

Yuffie just sat back down on the couch in between Cloud and Tifa while her brows curved downward; she was deep in thought. "Yuffie, are you okay?" Tifa asked.

"Oh, sure. Just thinking..." Yuffie trailed off. "If the first sighting was in Nibelheim, and she's slowly making her way east, don't you guys think she's bound to come to Edge eventually?"

"Hmm...you're right, Yuffie. She'll probably end up here at some point or another. The question is, though, what does she want, and why is she causing these 'disturbances,'" said Cloud.

"I swear," Yuffie said, "if I have to hear the word 'disturbance' again, I'm going to go crazy!" Cloud had the briefest of a smile at Yuffie's last comment. "Seriously, though guys. I think maybe we should do something about this. That girl's obviously not chopping off heads or anything, otherwise that greasy-looking news anchor would've been bawling on air." Yuffie chuckled at herself slightly. "I've been so bored lately! I'm really cravin' some action! No offense or anything, Teef, but throwing drunken buffoons out of your bar at closing time just isn't really cutting it for me anymore!"

"Maybe we should look into this, Cloud," Tifa stated. "She may not pose a threat to us or anything, but Yuffie's right. It's been a year since the Deepground situation and I kinda want to feel needed again. It feels sorta good knowing the people on this planet depend on the former members of AVALANCHE, you know?"

Just then the news anchor reappeared on the screen...again. "Sorry for the disruption again, folks, but we seem to have finally gotten a bit more info on this rising situation," the news anchor, almost calmly, said. "It seems as though the woman responsible for these-"

"We all know, buddy! 'DISTURBANCES,'" Yuffie interrupted.

"Yuffie, be quiet!!" Cloud and Tifa simultaneously demanded.

"-has left a note in one of the item shops in Junon. It reads _'Tell Cloud I'll be waiting for him.' _We all know that there is one well-known man by the name of Cloud. Cloud Strife!" The news anchor seemed reasonably tranquil now, and chuckled when he mentioned Cloud's name. "The former member of AVALANCHE, defeater of Sephiroth, and savior during the silver trio and Deepground attacks-"

"Hey, Vinnie was the savior of the whole Deepground ordeal, not you, Spikes!!" Yuffie whined.

Cloud just sat there, silently stunned. He wondered who this woman was, and how she could possibly know him. Does he know any girl with auburn-colored hair and twin katanas? Not that he can remember, at least...

"Well, Cloud, if I were you, I would be officially weirded out! I mean, geez! I was right! She is on her way to Edge...to find you!" Yuffie quickly blurted out. "What does she want with you, though?"

Tifa was still sitting on the couch next to Cloud, as she silently watched Yuffie pacing around, voicing all of her thoughts. Yuffie stopped for a second, however, and caught a very odd expression of Tifa's face. She couldn't quite place how the dark-haired martial artist was feeling because Yuffie had never seen that expression before.

"Tifa, you okay?" asked Yuffie.

"...Um, yeah, Yuffs. I'm fine. Just thinking about this whole thing. Maybe she is more dangerous than we thought..."

"Aww, you're worried about Spikey, aren't cha?!" exclaimed Yuffie. Tifa's cheeks went slightly red at that comment. "He'll be fine. You worry too much. Hmm, but maybe we could call in our buds, just in case, ya know? It wouldn't hurt to have the ol' AVALANCHE crew together again!"

Tifa stifled a few giggles to herself. Yuffie was right; Cloud could take care of himself. The reason she trying to control her laughter, however, was because she knew that Yuffie didn't care about the _whole_ AVALANCHE crew getting together. She just wanted to see _one_ person again. A certain gunslinger, that is.

"Yeah, I guess it wouldn't hurt." Tifa admitted. "I'll go call Cid and see if he can pick everyone up and meet here." She began walking out of the room when Cloud suddenly stood up and reached into his pocket, pulling out his PHS.

"Hello?--" said Cloud. "Oh, so you've heard? Since you're in Nibelheim did you catch a glimpse of her at all?"

"Ooooh, is it Vinnie?! Hi Vin-Vin!" Yuffie ran up to Cloud and tried talking into the PHS. Cloud was too quick, however, and pivoted the other way to leave the room so he could actually hear what Vincent was saying.

"I was just saying 'hello'..." Yuffie whined. Tifa walked over to Yuffie and put her arm around the ninja's shoulder's.

"Hey, it's okay! We all haven't seen or heard from Vincent in the last few months. Just let him finish up, then you can talk to him, alright?" Tifa tried comforting Yuffie.

"Vince probably doesn't wanna talk to me, anyway. He's had Shelke to keep him company ever since the Omega crisis..." Yuffie's eyes were downcast and her cheeks were slowly turning bright red.

"Come on, Yuffie! Don't be like that!" Tifa exclaimed, but then added, a little more quietly, "I think you should finally tell him that you love him."

"Wha-Who-that is the worst idea EVER!" Yuffie screeched. Tifa just gave her the 'don't even bother' look as Yuffie continued her senseless ramblings. "Fine then, Tifa. But, you know, I could say the same exact thing to you! Except this is a piece of knowledge that everyone knows and agrees with...except for the spikey-headed jerk, himself, of course!! But that's only because he's too thick to see it..."

"What are you talking about?" asked Tifa with an all-too innocent expression.

"Four years, Tifa. You've had him with you for the last four years and you still haven't told him how you feel!"

"You haven't told Vincent!"

"That's not as bad because at first it was just a teeny little crush. I started having actual feelings for him during the Deepground situation..." Yuffie tried to explain.

"I say we're even, then." Tifa said.

"Sounds good to me." Yuffie stated. They stopped talking and stared each other down for a few seconds until they both burst out laughing.

"You seriously do need to tell him soon, Teef," Yuffie said while wiping tears of laughter from her eyes. "A guy as smart as him is actually really stupid when it comes to love and relationships. I just don't wanna see you like this for four more years!"

"...Yuffie. It's harder to make Cloud open up than you think. Plus, I think that sometimes he still visits Aerith's church. He's still not over her..." Tifa crossed her arms and averted her eyes to the ceiling to avoid Yuffie's penetrating gaze.

"I visit Aerith's church, too! Am I in love with her? Nooo. What guy in their right mind wouldn't love you, Teef? He's an idiot," Yuffie had both of her hands on Tifa's shoulders and was trying to shake the sense into her. "And he'll evetually come around. You actually got it really easy. You technically live with him! It's gotta be easier to make Cloud open up than making Mr. Broody, himself, take down his defenses!"

"Yuffie, can't you see? You're the only person that Vincent allows his defense to be lowered around." Tifa tried to convince her.

"Nuh-uh, I don't believe you, Tifa," Yuffie removed her hands from Tifa's shoulders and took a step back. "But that's okay, really, because as long as Vinnie is happy, even if it's with Shelke,...then I'm happy!"

"Yuffie, what am I gonna do with you?" Tifa fake-chided with a grin on her face.

"Tifa-" began Yuffie.

"Hey, guys," Cloud chose that moment to walk back into the room. "Vincent said that he saw the whole thing. He's a little bit confused, though, because he can tell that this girl has skill with her katanas-"

"How can Vinnie know that just by looking at her?" Yuffie pondered.

"It's something that Vincent is really good at," Tifa interrupted, "remember?"

"Anyway, the confusing part is that in Nibelheim's item shop, she walked in with her katanas unsheathed, looked at all the items, glanced at the store clerk and all the other shoppers in there, then left..." Cloud explained.

"That doesn't make any sense!" added Yuffie.

"No...it doesn't," Tifa thought out loud.

"Vincent's theory is that she was trying to pick up any information of the whereabouts of-" Cloud sighed, "-well, me."

"And how would she find aforementioned info in an item or materia shop?" Yuffie asked.

Tifa just stood leaning against the doorframe, deep in thought. "...Maybe she wasn't looking for information," Tifa slowly stated, "Maybe she wanted...no..._knew_ that the information would be passed along to Cloud. That explains why she left the note in Junon."

"Ooh, Teef's got a really good point!" Yuffie said in a sing-song voice while bouncing on the balls of her feet.

"Yeah? Well, I guess all we can do is wait. Vincent already contacted Cid and the others, so they'll be here within the next day or so," Cloud shrugged with a nonchalant look on his face.

"But at the rate this...mysterious girl is going, will they get here in time?" Tifa wondered.

"Even if they don't get here in time, Teef, The Great Ninja Yuffie will kick that girl's butt from here all the way to Wutai!" Yuffie proclaimed.

"This is my fight, remember?" Cloud glanced toward Yuffie while scratching the back of his head in an almost embarrassed way.

"Yeah, well if things get ugly, I'm stepping in!" Yuffie pumped her fist into the air with a huge grin on her face.

"You won't need to do that," Cloud stated before walking out of the room again.

"Great!" Yuffie sarcastically mumbled, "let's add 'cocky' to the long list of attributes that make up the wonder that is Cloudy!"

Tifa rolled her eyes at Yuffie, but couldn't stop herself from laughing. "Yuffie, I know you're worried about _Cloudy_, but he'll be fine, really."

"Whoa, wasn't it me that was telling you not to worry?" Yuffie interjected. "And trust me, I'm _not_ worried! I just want a good spar is all. These ninja muscles need a good workout!" She began flexing her thin, yet toned biceps while donning a very 'constipated' facial expression.

"Okay, Yuffie." Tifa exasperatedly sighed. "I think I have the idea. I'm just wondering one thing, though: how are we so sure that it's a fight she wants with Cloud, anyway...?"

"Come on, Tifa. Think about it," Yuffie said. "A person who isn't looking for a fight wouldn't walk into materia and item shops all across the continent with two frickin katanas in her hands! Nuh-uh, my ninja senses tell me that it's a fight she wants! Alas! If it's a fight she wants, then it's a fight she'll get!"

"Yuffie, it's Cloud's-" Tifa started.

"-FIGHT, I know!!" Yuffie shouted. "I'm stepping in, though, if I see an opening. Nyuk, nyuk, nyuk!" Yuffie muttered while walking out of the room to join Cloud in the bar area.

"Whatever you say, Yuffie, whatever you say," Tifa chuckled before turning to join them, as well.

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A/N: Since this was my first ever fanfic, I would looove some reviews to see if people liked this. Thanks!! :)


	2. Reunion?

**Disclaimer**: I don't own FFVII...still...

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Chapter 2: Reunion?

It had only taken her only two days to get away from the god-awful town of Nibelheim all the way to the outskirts of the destroyed city of Midgar. _'I'm thrilled that I finally got out of that horrible place. I probably shouldn't have used _it _to help me, but I wanted to get away from there as fast as I could. I refuse to use it again, though,...unless I absolutely _have_ to!'_ She only had a few more hours worth of walking until she made it to Edge...and Cloud. Of course, any other person would've taken _much_ longer to get from Nibelheim to where she is now, but that's not the case with her. She's...different.

_'Are you ready for me, Cloud? I've been through enough these last several years. I just need to end this once and for all.'_

She knew that a sure-fire way of getting Cloud to know of her approach was by causing meaningless (and harmless) disturbances in random towns' shops along her path. It wasn't necessary for her to waste time actually hurting anyone, yet. With everything the planet has been through, they were sure to overreact, she figured. And she was dead on.

_'Knowing Cloud, he's probably already prepared for me'_ She chuckled slightly to herself and ran her hand through her auburn tresses of hair. _'At least from what I've heard recently about him, that is. I haven't actually seen him...in a very long time. I wonder how he'll react? Anger? Surprise? Shock? Will he even remember me? I guess I'll just have to wait and see...' _

She couldn't say she was surprised when she heard of his victory against Sephiroth, the 'failed experiments' of Sephiroth clones, or even the Omega crisis. Deepground was really taken down more by that ex-Turk than it was by Cloud, or so she heard. _'He still helped, though.' _She half-heartedly chuckled yet again.

_'I wish I could've helped a bit during those crises. I've really missed out on a lot, haven't I? _Especially_ these last four years! Oh well, I guess once I get to Cloud, I'll get a chance to redeem myself a bit.' _She unsheathed her twin katanas and dragged them along with her as she continued walking, causing two lines in the dirt to follow her.

_'Man, I hope I'm not outta shape! Hmmph. What am I even thinking? Filix wouldn't allow that, would he? Asshole...' _At that last thought a tingle unconsciously went down her spine. _'Why do I feel so uneasy? I managed to finally get away...but it was almost...too easy...' _She continued along her path to Edge, trying to ignore the foreboding feeling in the pit of her stomach.

* * *

"Hooey, I'm ready to go!!" Yuffie jumped up into the air with a gleeful expression on her face.

Cid had arrived at Seventh Heaven with everyone just a few hours ago and they were all prepared for this mystery girl to show up. It only took him two days, after Vincent contacted him, to pick everyone up and make it to their destination. _'Must've been the modifications on my baby the wife an' me worked on, hehe.' _He couldn't exactly park the _Shera_ next to the bar, so he landed it a mile or so outside of Edge, and the group of himself, Vincent, Nanaki, Barret, and Shelke walked to the bar from there. Reeve had more pressing matters to attend to with the WRO, plus he figured that Cloud could take care of himself. They didn't exactly know when to expect their 'visitor', so they just took a seat, or in Vincent's case, leaned up against the wall with his usual unreadable expression on his face.

"And _where_ exactly is it that you're going?" Tifa giggled from behind the bar counter. "Are you going to run out of here and try to find her, yourself, Yuffie? She could be _anywhere_ in Edge,...if she's even here yet." She kept wiping a wet washrag over one spot on the counter, trying to chip away a stain.

"It was just an expression, Teef!" Yuffie had a lopsided grin on her face and brushed a few strands of her jet-black bangs out of her face. "You know I just meant that I'm prepared for whatever's coming." She spun around on her bar stool a couple of times to pass the time.

"We all are, brat!" Cid took a long drag out of his cigarette. "I'm jus' confused about how this girl knows Cloud."

"Perhaps Cloud Strife has never met this person before," Shelke monotonously suggested. "It is possible that this person has only heard rumors and wants to see if they are correct."

"Nice one, Shelkey!" Yuffie jumped off of the bar stool she was sitting at and ran up to Shelke to give her a pat on the back.. "I don't think any of us thought of that one. We just figured she knew Cloud for one reason or another." Yuffie decided to slide into the booth across from Shelke. "Hey, Shelke, I never asked. How are you?"

"I have seen better days," Shelke replied.

"Huh...?" Yuffie finally looked at Shelke instead of just glancing at her, and what she saw completely shocked her. Shelke had dark circles under her eyes. Her skin was even more pale than it was when Yuffie first met her. Even her bright blue eyes seemed to have lost their vibrancy and are now a dull shade of blue. She may've even lost weight. It was a bit hard to tell when you're talking about someone whose figure is that of a young teenager, but possesses the mind and spirit of a person in their late teens or early twenties. "Whoa, Shelke! Are you okay?"

"Yes, Yuffie Kisar-" began Shelke.

"Shelke has decided not to receive her necessary mako treatments anymore," came a deep, sultry voice that Yuffie knew was Vincent's. She looked up to see him walking towards them.

"Wha-? Why not!" Yuffie looked over at Shelke's emotionless face with a genuine look of pure shock written all over her own face. "Without the treatments-"

"Yes, Yuffie Kisaragi. Without the treatments of mako infused into my body. I will die."

"Bu-Wha-VINCE!" Yuffie stood up with her hands on her hips to glare at Vincent. "How could you let her do that?"

"I tried to reason with her, but she wouldn't listen," Vincent was unfazed by the look of pure evil that Yuffie was sending his way. She was only a few inches from his face, as well...Vincent just cleared his throat and glanced over at Tifa, who came around from behind the bar counter and approached the three of them.

"Shelke, I don't understand. If you can't live without the mako treatments, why won't you keep receiving them?" Tifa questioned.

"Ya! I'm confused...?" Barret scratched his head in an almost primitive way.

"I refuse to rely on infusions of _mako_," she put emphasis on the last word, "to keep me alive." Shelke was still sitting at her booth and looked completely nonchalant about the whole thing. "I don't know why Vincent Valentine bothers trying to convince me to continue on because I refuse to do so. I...I'll be fine." Shelke looked up to see that Tifa had tears running down her porcelain cheeks. She cared for everyone in their group so much. "I wish to see my sister again."

At Shelke's last comment, Vincent turned away to walk back to the wall he was leaning against before their conversation had begun. Everyone knew who Shelke was taking about. Shalua. Shelke's sister who was put into a coma and later died, all to protect Shelke. No one really knew what to say after something like that was said. After a few moments, Yuffie sat back down on the booth opposite of Shelke, hugging her knees to her chest. Tifa put her hand on Shelke's hand, giving it a reassuring squeeze before she walked over to claim the bar stool, that Yuffie was sitting at earlier, next to Cloud.

"How-how long do you have, Shelke?" Yuffie quietly questioned.

"I needed mako treatments once every...month or so." Shelke looked deep into Yuffie's eyes. "I haven't gotten any since the month after we recovered Vincent from Dr. Crescent's cave."

"So that means...?" Yuffie cleared her throat and then scratched the back of her head in confusion. _'That was five months ago.'_

"I do not know how much longer I have. I can assure you that it is not long," Shelke still had an emotionless mask on her face, but Yuffie could have sworn that she saw a trace, however small it may have been, of a smile for a split-second.

"Hmm. Well, if that's your decision, Shelke,...and you're really okay with it...then we'll stand by you," Yuffie was steadily beginning to feel guilty for always being resentful about Shelke. She was never rude to her, or even disrespectful, but deep down, she was constantly jealous of the fact that Vincent wanted to be around her. If only because she possessed Lucrecia's memories...Yuffie figured that Vincent still wasn't over her, even after 30 some years. _'At least he's not beating himself up with undeserved guilt anymore. But wait! Since Shelke's gonna...um...is he going to be okay? Ohh, I bet not!' _Yuffie continued having thoughts like these run through her mind while she stared down at the table in front of her.

"Yuffie Kisaragi, I wish to have a word with you outside," came Shelke's voice from all the way over by the door. _'How did she get over there so fast? I guess I was zoning out a bit...hehe.'_

"Sure thing, Shelke," Yuffie bounced up from the booth and ran over to join Shelke, who was already outside.

Everyone else just watched Yuffie leave with traces of confusion written on their faces. "What could Shelke have to say to the brat that she can't say in fron' of us?" Cid bellowed from across the room.

"For the last time, she is not a brat, Cid. And that is really none of our business!" Tifa reproached. "I don't think any of you realize this, but Yuffie is not an immature 16 year old, kleptomaniac, ninja-"

"Where you goin' with dis, Teef?" Barret was sitting next to Cid at one of the tables in the bar, staring at Tifa as though he didn't think she knew what she was talking about.

"What I'm saying, Barret, is-"

"What Tifa is trying to say is that Yuffie has grown into a very mature young woman who cares deeply about everyone in this room," no one expected Vincent to say that much in anyone's defense, let alone Yuffie's. "So kindly refrain from calling her 'brat,' 'kid,' or any other derogatory nickname." Vincent sent his powerful gaze towards Cid.

"Vincent's right, Cid. Yuffie only acts the way she does because that's the only way she knows how to act," everyone was looking at Tifa, waiting for her to continue. "It's her own special way of putting smiles on our faces, and spirit back into our hearts!" Tifa was wearing her own smile as she was speaking. "After Aerith was killed," her face fell slightly, "who was the only person to keep us from wallowing in our depression and self-doubt?" Tifa quickly glanced at Cloud to see if he made a reaction at her last comment, but from what she could see, he hadn't budged an inch since she had begun speaking.

"When we had our final battle against Jenova and Sephiroth," Nanaki decided to join into the conversation to defend Yuffie, as well, "who ran ahead of everyone with her shuriken raised high above her head, while shouting...what was it? Oh yes: 'Come on, slowpokes!'" He had a wolfish grin on his face at that point.

"Yuffie," Cid answered. "Teef, you _know_ I can't be around someone without givin' them a nickname, however _derogatory_ that may be," Cid nodded his head in Vincent's direction. "Hell, you all know I care about the ki-" Cid stopped for a second. "About _Yuffie_. She's like a daughter to me, actually." No one really expected Cid to say something like that about Yuffie.

"Well, I'm glad all you foo's are gettin' all this sentimental crap off yo chests," Barret interrupted. "So don't mind me," he pushed his chair back to get up to walk into the other room. "I'm gonna go give Elmyra a call to see how she, Denzel and Marlene are doin'."

After the Kadaj incident, and after everyone was cured of their Geostigma, Denzel had to make a choice. Stay with Tifa and Cloud at the bar, or leave with his best friend and sister-figure, Marlene, to live with she and Barret in Corel, which, at that point was still being reconstructed. (It was reconstructed enough, though, where inhabitants could live in peace there.) His heart was torn; he didn't want to leave Tifa and Cloud, but he also couldn't bear to see his best friend leave, either. After hours and hours of deep thought and persuasion, Denzel made his choice. He would go with Marlene and Barret. On one condition, however: he promised to come visit Tifa and Cloud whenever he needed to, which pleased Tifa immensely. Denzel was like a son to her.

A little while after Barret, Marlene and Denzel officially moved to Corel, Elmyra and Barret's relationship began to become even more comfortable. They had been in touch ever since she watched over Marlene during the Meteor Crisis. She moved to Corel, as well, about a year later to stay with him, Denzel, and Marlene while Barret continued his oil mining jobs throughout the area. Everyone who saw them together could tell that they were absolutely in love...except them, of course. Even Marlene and Denzel could tell!

"Talk about sentimental..." Cid murmured while picking up his Venus Gospel to give it a quick inspection

"Hey, Cloud?" Tifa quietly turned to Cloud, who had been unusually silent throughout the last half hour or so. "Are you okay? You seem kinda...off."

Cloud blinked a few times to clear his head and looked over to Tifa, giving her the 'Cloud smirk.' "Yeah, I'm fine. I'm just waiting for this girl to get here is all..."

Tifa just absentmindedly nodded, not really believing what he was saying. "You don't believe me, do you?" Cloud could read Tifa very well, it seemed. Tifa gave a shaky laugh.

"No, no I don't," Tifa shook her head a few times. "These last two days, you seem really different. I...I just don't want you to have to leave again," she drooped her chin down to her chest as though she was ashamed. "Things have been going really well lately."

Cloud just gave her another one of his smirks. "Teef?" Tifa quickly shot her head back up to see what it was Cloud was going to say. "If I leave..." Tifa's heart plummeted at the thought of what he was going to say next..."I'll just have to take you with me." Cloud finished.

Tifa chin dropped. _'Did he say what I thought he just said?' _"Wha-?"

Cloud laughed softly, eyes twinkling with mirth. "You heard me." Tifa just sat there, looking at Cloud as though she had never seen him before in her life. After a few moments, however, she snapped out of her reverie and began to laugh along with him.

"Good."

* * *

Yuffie followed Shelke outside with nothing short of anticipation written across her face. _'What could she want to say to me that she couldn't say in front of everyone else?' _Suddenly Shelke stopped walking without giving Yuffie any warning, so naturally, Yuffie, who was still absorbed in her thoughts, ran face-first into her back. "Ouchie!!" Yuffie took a step back, rubbing her nose with the palm of her hand. "Sorry 'bout that, Shelke," came Yuffie's muffled remark from beneath her hand as Shelke turned around to face her.

"I assume you are wondering why I needed to speak with you." Yuffie quickly nodded her head in reply, not knowing if a spoken answer was necessary or not. "You are in love with Vincent Valentine." It wasn't a question as much as it was a statement. Yuffie just stood there, mouth agape, and bewildered. _'How in the world does everyone know this?' _"Do not worry, I believe that he is unaware of this. I, however, am not." _'Obviously,' _thought Yuffie.

"So is that why you brought me out here: to tell me that I'm in love with Vince?" Yuffie was staring at Shelke with an incredulous look on her face.

"No," Shelke quickly shook her head. "I wish to ask you something. When I am gone, which will not be much longer, now..., will you be with Vincent?"

Yuffie looked like a fish out of water because of the way her mouth kept opening and closing as she took in what Shelke was saying. "What do you mean 'will I be with Vincent'?" she finally voiced.

Shelke just stood there, arms crossed, silently watching Yuffie as thoughts raced through the ninja's mind. "What I mean to say is, he needs someone in his life that he can rely on and be himself around, for once."

Yuffie still didn't understand. "'For once'? Shelke, I thought he felt all of those things when he was with you!"

Shelke didn't acknowledge that she had heard Yuffie's last comment. "And he also needs someone that he can love."

"L-love?!" Yuffie looked completely flabbergasted now and her heart was racing due to her added embarrassment. "Vinnie could never love someone like me!" Her cheeks felt like they were on fire.

Shelke shook her head in disagreement. "Yuffie Kisaragi, you are a fool. You are under the impression that he is still in love with Dr. Lucrecia Crescent, are you not?" Yuffie remained silent, which let Shelke know she was right. "You also believe that Vincent wishes to spend time with me because I hold Dr. Crescent's memories and feelings inside of me, correct?"

"I guess you could say that," Yuffie mumbled in return. She couldn't bring herself to look into Shelke's eyes. She felt _very_ awkward right now.

"I thought so. You are under the wrong impression," Shelke had her arms crossed and sent her powerful gaze into Yuffie's timid one.

"No, Shelke, I'm not!" Yuffie waved her arms in front of her in disbelief. "He loves Lucrecia. You _have_ Lucrecia in you. Therefore, he loves you!" _'Duh!' _she thought.

"You are incorrect. Are you too blind to see that it's not me he loves, but in fact, y-"

"HEY, you two!!" A 10 or 11 year old kid with black hair and workout clothes on was sprinting towards them; from the sweat stains on his tank top to the shiny surface of his face, the girls could tell that he had been running for quite awhile. "You...guys...know...Cloud...Strife...right?" He was hunched over with his hands on his knees, trying to catch his breath.

"Yeah...? Whaddaya want, kiddo?" Yuffie approached him and bent over so she was eyelevel with him.

He stood straight up and looked straight into Yuffie's eyes. Yuffie could tell that he was extremely anxious about something. "It's that girl that was on the news!" He had caught his breath now. "I was just out for my daily jog when I saw this girl with two reeaallly scary lookin' swords! I stopped running because I was so scared." He was shaking at this point. "I was gonna turn around and run back to my house, but before I knew it, she was right next to me!"

"She did not harm you, did she?" Shelke questioned from behind Yuffie.

"No. I couldn't really tell if she was gonna hurt me at all. She kept her sword thingies in their holders," the kid answered.

"Whew! That's a relief," Yuffie wiped invisible sweat from her brow. "So then what did she want with you?"

"Um...she told me to find Cloud Strife and tell him that she'll be waiting for him 2 miles west of the city limits. Please tell him for me!" The kid slowly began to tear up. "I just wanna go home."

"Yeah, kid. Go!" Yuffie tried to comfort him, but before she knew it, he took off running in the direction that he came from. "This...last time...running...by myself...!" was all they heard as he ran away from them.

"What are we waiting for, Shelke? We better go tell Cloud!" Shelke and Yuffie turned around to race back toward Seventh Heaven to inform everyone of this latest development.

* * *

"Wait so you're saying that this girl passed along her message to a _10 year old_?" Cloud was confused. If she was in this city, chances were high that she knew exactly where Cloud was. But, if she knew where he was, why didn't she just come and face him there? This wasn't making any sense.

"Perhaps this girl would rather not show her face for the whole city to see." Nanaki stood on all fours and walked over to the door, where Yuffie and Shelke were standing.

"But, Red. If she didn't want to show her face, she wouldn't have been on the news, like, a billion times, _already_!" Yuffie pointed out.

"There's no use standing here debating about it now." Vincent sized himself up from where he was leaning against the wall. "Let's just _go_, now."

"I agree." Cloud got up from the bar stool before turning to give Tifa a hand getting down from hers, causing her to blush slightly. "We don't know what to expect, so prepare yourselves, everyone."

"Oh, chocobo-head," Yuffie snickered. "I thought you said this was _your_ fight!"

"An' he also said we don' know wut to 'spect!" Barret countered before getting up as well. "Let's jus' go!"

"Sounds like a plan to me!" Tifa glided over to where Shelke, Yuffie and Nanaki were already exiting.

As Cloud and Vincent were the last two to exit, Cloud turned to Vincent and chuckled. "Same old AVALANCHE."

"Huh. No kidding."

* * *

They were about a mile and a half out from the western city border when Vincent mentioned something. "Do you see that directly ahead of us?"

"Huh? Where?" Yuffie used her hand as a visor to deflect the sun from her eyes so she could see where Vincent was taking about.

"I see it as well. I believe it is _her_," Nanaki agreed.

"Yes...you are correct," added Shelke.

"Why did she choose here, of all the places she could've chosen?" Yuffie whined and readjusted her bandana. "We're in the middle of nowhere!"

"We are not, an' if you think so, turn around! We're only a mile or so away from Edge!" Cid bellowed from behind her. "If yer gonna keep yer whinin' then we're better off without ya!"

"As if. You wouldn't stand a chance without the awesome skill-" Cloud gave Yuffie an annoyed look. "Okaaay! Without the awesome _support_ of the Great Ninja Yuffie!!"

At the speed they were walking, they quickly approached the mysterious girl, who actually happened to be sitting on an oversized rock. She had her eyes closed with her face turned skyward. Her feet were swinging from side to side and her auburn tresses fluttered around her tanned face with the light breeze. She almost looked as if she was asleep. This was proven false, however, when Yuffie shouted, "She's sitting on a frickin _rock_?!" The girl opened her hazel eyes and blinked a few times to get used to the brightness of the sun.

"It's about time you showed up, Cloud." She stood up and threw her arms into the air, _stretching_. With an over-exaggerated yawn she did a quick once-over of the...fairly large group in front of her. "Well, I'll be. I ask for Cloud and I get his whole posse."

"Who do you think you are?" Yuffie took a couple of steps closer to her. Little did she know that Vincent 's arms uncrossed and his forehead creased a bit when she did so. "You are in the presence of some very important people, you know!"

"Yes. I know, _Princess_ Kisaragi." The girl now had a very bored expression on her face and was tapping the sides of the holsters of her katanas at each side of her hips. "Tell me, what's a pretty little thing like you doing so far away from your kingdom?" She asked in a mocking tone.

"You-!" Yuffie had a look of pure hatred directed at the mysterious girl.

"Enough!" she interrupted. "You're wasting my time. I only wanted Cloud and I end up with the whole bunch!" She amusedly chuckled and unsheathed her katanas. "So be it."

"Yuffie, stop while you're ahead!" Cloud went to put his hand on her shoulder but she shrugged it away.

"No way, Cloud! I said I was stepping in if I saw an opening!" Yuffie unsheathed her weapon of choice, the Conformer, and got into her battle stance. "If this isn't an opening, then I don't know what is!"

"Are you serious?" the girl looked genuinely surprised. It appeared that she didn't know as much about Yuffie as she thought. She then turned her attention to Cloud who was standing cattycorner to Yuffie. "Hmm. It seems you really _don't_ remember me do you, Cloud." She looked...disappointed. "He warned me, but I never listen to what that bastard has to say, anyway." She sighed. "Oh, well. If you guys don't mind, I think I'll take care of this overeager ninja before I take care of my business with you, Cloud."

Everyone shouted their own choice words at her last comment, except Vincent, who expressed himself in his inhumanly possible death glare. "No way!!" Tifa all but screamed. "Why do you want to fight, Yuffie?"

"I never said I wanted to fight her." She shrugged with her katanas still in her hands. "She's the one that wants to fight me so badly. I'm just choosing to defend myself." She shook her head to the side so that her hair was behind her instead of over her shoulders.

"Enough of this chitchat!" Yuffie then glanced over to Cloud. "Sorry, Spikey. You always get the good fights. I want one _for once_!" Her fingers were tingling on her Conformer. She wanted this fight _so_ bad.

Cloud sighed. When Yuffie put her mind to something, there really wasn't much anyone could say or do to talk her out of it. He just hoped she didn't get herself killed. He supposed he, or any other member of AVALANCHE, would have enough sense to step in before it got that far. Would he even need to? Should he even worry? He glanced over at Yuffie one more time to see that she was both determined _and_ serious. "Be careful, Yuffie."

She lightheartedly giggled. "You know me, Cloud. I'll be fine. Do me a favor though and get outta the way!"

The katana girl joined in with Yuffie's laughter, surprising everyone. "Yeah, Cloud! Give a girl some room!" Everyone stepped back as Yuffie surged forward with her Conformer. _'This should be good.'_

* * *

A/N: Whew! Chapter 2 Complete!! YAY! So what do you guys think? Good? Bad? I would greatly appreciate some REVIEWS to see where I'm at with everyone! :) muchas gracias


	3. Face Off

Thanks for the reviews everyone! They make me feel bubbly inside!:

**EvilBlanket**: thank you so much! I'm glad you're enjoying it!

**Dragon Reverb**: I'll update as fast as possible! oh and let's just say Cloud's using his Buster Sword, but it's had some extreme modifications; it's even more effective than what he was using in AC!

**Red-Firaga**: thanks a bunch!! so far, it's been really fun writing Yuffie! her character is so interesting...and funny!

**Silver-Firelizard**: Thank you so much! I'll post the next chapter as soon as I can!

**Disclaimer**: I don't own FFVII...

* * *

Chapter 3: Face-Off

_The girl joined in with Yuffie's laughter, surprising everyone. "Yeah, Cloud! Give a girl some room!" Everyone stepped back as Yuffie surged forward with her Conformer. 'This should be good.'_

With three long strides, Yuffie was close enough to the girl where she could quickly slash with her Conformer without needing to soar it through the air. The girl hastily shot up one of katanas to block the swipe, however, and with one swing, she sent Yuffie flying backwards. Yuffie did a back-flip through the air to land on her feet, instead of landing sprawled across the ground.

"Not bad," Yuffie chose a different approach this time. She hurled her Conformer at the speed of light towards her opponent. _'That should do the trick. It hasn't missed a target yet!'_ It almost looked like she had succeeded, but the girl evaded the attack at the last possible second by bending her entire upper body back. She was bent so far backwards that the ends of her long auburn hair were brushing against the ground. As the Conformer whizzed around in its parabolic path to return to Yuffie, the girl straightened herself, spun and struck it with the katana in her left hand, sending it spiraling over to embed itself into a random tree.

"You didn't actually think that was going to work, did you?" the girl laughed softly. "Is that all you got?"

"Perhaps we should do something about this." Nanaki trotted forward to approach Cloud's side. "Things are already looking unfavorable for Yuffie."

"She hasn't even started yet, Nanaki!" Tifa defended. "Give her a little bit longer."

Cloud remained silent, observing the ongoing fight with his brows furrowed and his arms crossed. _'There's something familiar about this girl's fighting style...why would I think it's familiar, though? I've never seen her before in my life.'_

"I'm not even warmed up yet!" Yuffie sped over to the girl to attempt hand-to-hand combat, instead. At least until she could retrieve her Conformer from that tree..._'Let's see if those martial arts training sessions with Tifa actually paid off.' _Forming her right hand into a fist, she charged forward, aiming for a swift punch to the girl's abdomen.

"Oh, so you wanna play like that?" the girl sheathed her katanas, then intercepted Yuffie's hand before it even got close to hitting its target. When Yuffie swung her other fist back to attempt another punch, the girl just caught it with her other hand. "Having fun yet?" she giggled. Yuffie, after struggling for a few moments, decided to use her position to her advantage. With her quick thinking, she brought one leg up onto the girl's chest, pushing off of it, and successfully breaking free. As she pushed off, Yuffie did a back handspring so she could land more gracefully.

"Score one for Yuffie!" Yuffie pumped her fist into the air, gloating, and momentarily off-guard. The girl took this opportunity, as any good fighter would, and launched herself toward Yuffie. Grabbing a surprised Yuffie by her long and slender arm, she pulled her off the ground, throwing her high into the air. The girl jumped up and performed a 720 misty in the air, kicking Yuffie back to the ground during her series of twists, spins and flips. Unfortunately, Yuffie managed to land in a heap, directly on the oversized rock, cracking it in the process. She didn't have enough time to land on her feet after being dealt with such a _powerful_ kick. _'Oww...this girl's stronger than I thought. Okay, get up, Yuffie. Urgh...You can do this...'_

The girl landed smoothly and gracefully, several feet away from Yuffie. She just stood there, silently watching as Yuffie feebly attempted to push herself off of the rock. One would think that her eyes would be filled with nothing but malice, but they surprisingly weren't. There was a flicker of another emotion in their pools of blue-green...but what was it?

Everyone present during their battle had looks of worry and shock on their faces. They didn't know what to do, really. Should they intervene before Yuffie is more seriously hurt? Or should they stand down, having faith that Yuffie will get up and continue the fight?

"Do you want to stop now?" the girl interrupted everyone's reveries. Cloud did a double take. He could've sworn that he saw _concern_ in her hazel orbs.

"Why would she ask Yuffie if she wanted to stop, Cloud?" Tifa reached over and grabbed Cloud by his upper arm, seemingly puzzled. "I thought she would want to finish her off _now_. Nothing this girl does is what we thought she would do. "

"I know." Cloud nodded in agreement with his brows still furrowed. "Hey!" He yelled over to the two girls, instantly gaining their attention. "Enough! I'm stepping in now!" He unsheathed his newly modified Buster Sword and calmly walked over to where Yuffie was attempting, and failing, to get up from the rock. "You okay?"

Yuffie moaned in excruciating pain. "I thought so," Cloud murmured. He couldn't control his eyebrows from jutting up underneath his spiky blond bangs, though. _'That went fairly quickly. She only dealt _one_ kick.' _Cloud looked up at Vincent for a brief moment, and Vincent immediately approached the two of them.

"I'll take her." Vincent kneeled, gently scooping up Yuffie from the rock to carry her away from the 'battlefield,' ignoring Yuffie's protests of "I'm not finished yet!"

"Yes, you are," Vincent voice was laced with authority, which managed to hide his concern for the time-being. "Unless you can stand on your own, that is." He carefully put her on her own two feet.

"Uh-oh...!" Yuffie's knees began to buckle. "Timber!" She slowly fell forward. Vincent was too quick, however, and wordlessly wrapped his arms around her waist before she could fall over.

Tifa was wearing a bemused expression. "Are you going to listen to Vincent now, Yuffie?" Yuffie just _hmmph_ed as she allowed herself to literally be swept off of her feet and into Vincent's arms. "Cid! Toss her a potion, would you?"

"I think I'm broken..." came Yuffie's muffled voice from Vincent's chest. She had managed to snuggle into his chest in a matter of seconds. _'Hey, if I'm gonna be in a situation with him like this, I might as well take what I can get from it!' _From afar, if anyone outside of the surrounding group were to see Yuffie like that, they probably wouldn't realize that she was injured. She looked _way_ too comfortable to be hurt. Then again, she _did _have a rather nasty gash above an even more disturbing bruise on her back from where she landed on the rock. Not to mention the large welt on her stomach from where the girl sent her down to the rock in the first place.

"Dammit, kid!" Cid barked as he drew closer to them. "Why did you !& do that!?" He handed her the potion. "You woulda never gotten yer ass kicked if you just listened to us!"

Yuffie cowered closer into Vincent's chest, if that was even possible. "Be nice to me! I'm in pain right now." Yuffie turned her head to face Cid, realization suddenly dawning on her. "Aaw, you were worried about me!?" Cid just muttered under his breath, walking away from the two of them. "You looove me, doncha!" she shouted after him. "Ouch!" Yuffie clutched her stomach in pain and downed the potion vial in one big gulp.

"Maybe you shouldn't move around so much," Vincent chided. "Seeing as you _are _injured." Yuffie rolled her eyes and made no reply. No one could see the slight smirk on her face, however, hidden beneath the fabric of Vincent's crimson cloak.

"You can put me down now, Vinnie," Yuffie peeked up into Vincent's crimson gaze and blushed. _'All good things must come to an end eventually.'_ "I can just sit over there next to Red and Shelke." She pointed to a spot not too far away. Vincent let out a heavy sigh and complied to her wish.

"I'm sorry about your friend, Cloud," the girl appeared to be serious. "I knew someone like that once," Cloud stared into her hazel orbs, waiting her to finish. "He was as stubborn as she is..." she giggled softly. "I figured she wouldn't want to quit, regardless of what I said or did."

"But, you were taunting her!" Tifa added in from several yards behind them. They were not understanding this girl..._at all_.

"Oh, come on!" she brought her hand up to swipe her hair away from her face. "I was just ruffling her feathers a bit. I wanted to see if what _he_ said about her was right-"

"Who?" Cloud interrupted.

"I don't think you need to worry about that. At least not right now," she shrugged admittedly.

"Are you going to tell me who you are before we do this?" Cloud walked closer to her so that they were face-to-face.

"No. I don't think I will!" she tried to stifle another giggle by biting on her lower lip. "Let's see if a quick fight will knock your memories back into place on their own, shall we?!"

"Wha-?" began Cloud.

Before Cloud could voice his question, the girl swung one of her katanas around, aiming for Cloud's head. Though, Cloud was not prepared for her sudden attack, he still managed to bring his Buster Sword up in enough time to prevent her deathblow from decapitating him. "You're no fun!" she fake-admonished and took a giant leap backwards, getting into her battle stance.

They both rushed forward, ready to face what could be their best fight in quite awhile. Cloud made the first move, slashing his sword horizontally. She was too quick, however, and flipped forward over his sword to double kick his chest. "Outta practice?" she wondered as Cloud staggered backward. Cloud just shook it off, ready for more.

'_Why hasn't she used her weapons at all? It's like she's not even trying.' _"Why are you holding back?"

"I'm not!" she gave him a toothy grin. "Hmm. I think I'll change this up a bit." She sheathed one of her katanas and gripped the other one with both of her hands. "Now we're even, no?" She dashed over to Cloud, katana over her head, ready to slice at him once more, only Cloud blocked it with his own sword at the last second.

The both of them kept trying similar approaches, constantly, but each time, they would block each other's attacks. They appeared to be rather even when it came to their skill with swords. Every now and then, they would get a good punch or a mighty kick into play, somehow, but that wouldn't take care of what they wanted to finish. After what felt like hours, but was actually only about a half hour, the girl exclaimed, "Enough!" Charging toward Cloud with her katana at her side at an inhumanly possible speed, she slashed her sword to disarm Cloud of his, and roundhouse kicked him in the gut, making him double over in pain. Cloud gasped, clutching his stomach and trying to retrieve the wind that was forcibly knocked out of him. On his knees, he looked up to stare directly at the tip of her katana, pointed right between his eyes. She sighed, sheathing her katana and kneeling down so she could be eyelevel with him.

"Look at me now and tell me you _still _don't know who I am, Cumulus." she gave him a genuine smile. She seemed...happy.

"Who are you calling Cu-?" Cloud broke off abruptly, his jaw dropping. "No...it can't be." As Cloud blinked his turquoise orbs, memories upon more memories of a lively girl who branded him with the nickname, 'Cumulus,' flitted past. "You're dead!"

She half-heartedly laughed, sizing herself up from her position and stretching her hand out to help Cloud up. "Why'd you foo's stop?!" came Barret's holler. "I can't hear nuthin'!" He turned to complain to Tifa who was standing next to him. "Let's go ova there!" Everyone else, except Vincent, couldn't hear what was going on either, so, following Barret's lead, they jogged over to where the mysterious girl and Cloud were conversing.

"It's about time you remembered me!" she playfully slapped him on his shoulder. "What took you so long?" Cloud rubbed his forehead in obvious pain.

"I-I don't know..." he looked extremely confused. "Ever since we faced Sephiroth and I found out...er..._remembered_ that I was just a third class SOLDIER grunt and not Zack, some memories keep slipping away from me!" he sighed. "Others embed themselves in my mind, but they're not my own memories at all. I just learned to ignore it sometimes..." he trailed off. "The mako really screwed with my mind."

The 7 other members of their group stood watching as the two of them chatted. They obviously had no clue what was going on. "Wait!?..." Yuffie was sitting on Nanaki's back now, with no complaints whatsoever from the wolfish-lion. "So you do know this girl?...And she beat me up!?"

"I didn't beat you up!" the girl turned towards Yuffie. "I was accepting your challenge. And if you didn't notice, all I did was kick you."

Yuffie murmured to herself, but a few choice words could be heard from under her breath. "You don't have to rub it in!" She crossed her arms in embarrassment.

"I truly am sorry for hurting you, Yuffie. I didn't mean for it to escalate to that level," she apologized. Her hazel eyes were boring so intently into Yuffie's blue-gray orbs that Yuffie had to turn her head away.

"Yeah...sure, whatever." Yuffie half-heartedly responded.

"Cloud?" Tifa put her hand on Cloud's shoulder. "Would you mind explaining to everyone what's going on?"

"You'd have to ask her to explain," Cloud nodded towards the girl. "She still hasn't come up with an explanation for why she's alive..."

"You mean...you thought she was dead?" Tifa put her index finger on her chin, absorbed in the situation.

"Yeah, I did. She and I were in SOLDIER together all those years ago. She was in first class, though. She, Zack, Sephiroth and I..." he let out a huge sigh. "We were all friends."

"What happened that made you believe she was dead?" Vincent's deep baritone joined into the conversation.

Cloud scratched the back of his spiky head, not sure what to say next. He tilted his head back to look at the changing colors of the sky. "Listen, it's getting dark out. Maybe we should continue this back at Seventh Heaven?"

"But if the people of Edge see her, won't they flip out?" wondered Yuffie.

"The brat's right. Plus, I'm too &# tired to walk all the way to Tifa's bar anyway," Cid chipped in. "Let's go continue this onboard the _Shera_. It's closer."

"Sounds good to me!" Yuffie had her happy-go-lucky smile back on her face. She didn't seem too upset about losing the fight anymore. _'I don't blame her really. I would want to challenge the best female ninja in the world as well! Maybe we can have a rematch some other time...' _"Up, up and away, Red!!" Yuffie pointed to the sky, ready to go.

"Git off his &# back, kid!" Cid barked. "He probably don't want yer skinny ass breaking his back the whole way there!"

"Don't speak for other people, Gramps!" Yuffie then petted Nanaki's mane. "Um, Red? Do you mind if-"

"I do not mind, Yuffie," Nanaki assured her. "Just kindly refrain yourself from moving around so much. You may fall off." Yuffie giggled, but complied, hunching over so she would have a better grip on Nanaki's fur.

"Are you still in pain, Yuffie Kisaragi?" Shelke whispered to Yuffie as she met Nanaki's pace.

"Kinda..." Yuffie shrugged. "I'll be fine once I get another potion. Stupid Cid only let me have one!"

* * *

During their journey to the _Shera_, Tifa turned to the girl. "So," the girl looked up at Tifa. She had remained incredibly silent ever since she had apologized to Yuffie. "What's your name?"

She beamed. "I was wondering when one of you would ask me that!" Tifa tilted her head slightly so she could see where she was walking and hear what the girl had to say at the same time.

"Terra," her eyes were filled with mirth. "My name is Terra."

* * *

A/N: YAY! Finally finished with Ch.3! Sorry if the battle parts kinda sucked...that was my first time ever writing something like that and it's pretty much all I could come up with for now! Anyway...REVIEWS are still and always will be appreciated!! THANKS! :)


	4. Explanations Pt 1

Thanks for the reviews everybody! They more reviews I get, the more motivated I am to write!! XD

**Dragon Reverb: **thanks for the review! yeah i know the buster sword would probably be pretty rusted but let's just pretend they fixed it up reaaally good!! ;)

**Silver-Firelizard: **thanks!! oh and oops! i didn't mean for her to seem like she was aerith. i don't intend on having her in this fic...unless it's in the lifestream or something...i like cloti fics more than cleriths!

Oh and just a quick **A/N **before you continue the story: this will be part one of the two part chap, 'Explanations.' I'm just trying to explain a bit of Terra's past and stuff like that. Anyhoo...enjoy the chappie!! :)

**Disclaimer**: I don't own FFVII. but I do own my OC, Terra! Yaaay...

* * *

Chapter 4: Explanations-Part One

The _Shera_ was one of the most comfortable places Terra had ever been to in an extremely long time. Yes, it was an airship, but the warmth that emanated from the engines and the people around her was comforting. Being around people who weren't out to hurt her, for once, was reassuring as well. It made her feel whole again. Then again, anything is better than the _cold_ place that she ran away from. She shuddered at the thought. _'I never want to go back there. Ever.'_

"I knew it was a good idea to put that goddamn conference room in here..." Cid muttered to himself as he led the group into the aforementioned room.

"Okay!!" Yuffie loudly clapped her hands together, causing everyone but Vincent and Shelke to flinch. "Let's get this show on the road! I'm sooo in the dark right now...I hate being confused!"

They all took a seat except for Cloud. He was facing the whole group, scratching the back of his head in hesitance. "Maybe Terra should do the talking. I still want to hear her side of the story anyway."

"You right, Spikey!" Barret chimed in, nodding his head in Terra's direction.

"Plus, you never really said why you wanted to fight me..." Cloud shrugged and resignedly took a seat next to Tifa, who gave him a shy smile as he caught her staring at him.

Terra just nodded her head in agreement. "Yeah...sure." She stood up, noticing everyone's gaze on her. "Um..." she nervously laughed. "Where do I begin..."

"Start at the beginning." Shelke almost commanded. Yuffie, who was sitting next to her, had to control herself keep her laughter from bursting out. _'How does she stay so serious all the time? Gawd! She's worse than Vinnie!'_

Terra nodded her head vigorously in agreement, once again. "Okay. I warn you, though. It's a long story."

"We have all the time in the world," Vincent reassured with his serious tone.

Terra cleared her throat. "Well, it all started..."

_Flashback_

_A girl of sixteen sat by herself on her special hill, just outside of her hometown of Kalm, staring at the passing clouds. She sighed. 'If only there was something fun to do around here. Maybe Dad will help me some more with my weapon handling! He did promise that today we would start something new!' She rose from the ground, her mind set. She'd go bug her father to further her training. _

_Terra's father was a widower; her mother had died after giving birth to her. Because Terra was his only child, he was extremely overprotective and overbearing. Due to her father's overprotective nature, he forced her to train strenuously until she could master all different types of weaponry and several types of techniques to go along with it. Terra took it up quite easily; even when she first started at the age of six! Terra didn't mind any of her father's quirks, though. She and her dad were so close, you could say they were best friends. He was always there for her when she needed him, and she would wordlessly comfort him when the pain of losing the love of his life became too much for him to bear._

_As she ran back into town, she noticed that something seemed...off. No one was roaming outside like they normally did, and the shops' doors that were regularly open for customers to come in were boarded shut. 'How long was I gone. Maybe I should stop taking naps on that hill...' She continued to walk down the street, an unpleasant feeling churning in the pit of her stomach._

_She finally reached her home, on the verge of a breakdown. She _knew_ something was wrong now. Her door was wide open, with a huge dent in it. 'What happened here?' Rushing up the creaky stairs going up to her father's room, she noticed something shiny and crimson on each stair. At the point of hysteria, she charged into her father's bedroom, not ready to see what was to come. Her father was unconscious, half-on his bed, half-off. His head and arms were on the ground, but his lower body was sprawled across the mattress. His dark-brown hair was messed up, as though he had bed-head. "Daddy!?" She bolted to his side, and crawled onto her knees. With each of her hands on the sides of his face, she began gently patting his cheeks to arouse him from his state of unconsciousness. "Please wake up!" As she scanned her eyes across his body, she saw deep gashes across his chest and what appeared to be a broken leg; it was at a disturbingly odd angle. "No!!...It can't be!" She roughly shook him, trying desperately to wake him up, but nothing worked. "Y-You can't be...d-dead!" She blinked away the waterfall of tears that were rapidly making their way down her cheeks. "I'll kill whoever did this to you!" _

_Standing up with pure determination etched across her face, she wiped away her tears and walked over to her dad's dresser. Opening one of the drawers, she shoved his pants out of the way so she could withdraw two twelve inch daggers. She spun them around in her hands a few times, a trick her father had taught her to do to warm-up the muscles in her hands. Her eyes darted up to the top of the dresser to see a picture frame, face-down. She set it straight up and saw that it was a picture of her father and her. It was taken on her fifteenth birthday. They looked so...happy. She turned to leave, not able to stay in the room any longer. Stopping for a brief second, she glanced at her father, still not willing to accept his fate. "I'll be right back, Dad." She sped out of the room, jumped down the whole flight of stairs, and ran outside._

_Upon leaving her house, she saw something in Kalm that she hadn't noticed before. The other homes around her own home had windows broken, or doors crashed open, just like in her house. 'How the hell did I miss that?...I guess I just wanted to get home.' Suddenly, she heard obnoxious laughter coming from the other side of a house close to her. Gripping her daggers firmly, she raced to the source of the noise, ready to strike. As she turned the corner, she saw a group of about twenty men, beating up one man that she recognized as the materia shopkeeper. "STOP IT!!" she screamed and approached them._

_"Oooh, boys. Lookie here!" the ugliest of the group, and obviously their leader, stepped forward, dropping the shopkeeper to the ground, allowing the poor old man to scurry away in fear. From their bulging pockets, they had obviously gotten the materia that they wanted, anyway. _

_The whole group was dressed similarly. They all had beat-up, dirty, cheap, street clothes that were the same color: dark green. She could tell just by the "leader" person's comment that this was, undoubtedly, a violent gang. "This here girlie thinks she can stop us!" he had a harsh laugh, one that exuded evil. As he was talking, he had his face turned to the other members of his gang. Finally, he turned to Terra and put on a mock baby-voice. "Watcha gonna do? Drown me in your tears?" Terra hadn't realized that tears had been slowly building up in her eyes. She wasn't stupid. She knew that these men...these _monsters_ killed her father. Hell. They must've killed tons of other innocent people in Kalm, as well. All for fun and games..._

_"No...I'm going to slaughter all of you! One..by...one..." she declared, proud that her voice didn't come out as shaky as she felt on the inside._

_All the men in the gang guffawed at her last comment; she was seemingly no threat to them. Terra smirked. "You don't believe me?"_

_"Nope, I don't," the leader spoke again. "So, how 'bout instead of you 'slaughtering' us, we have a little fun, instead?" his venomous eyes were filled with something that disgusted Terra. She knew what he meant. He was eyeing her up and down like she was a piece of meat._

_"I think I'll pass," she showed them her daggers. "I have my own idea of fun in mind."_

_"Hey wait a minute, boss!" one of the gang-bangers interrupted. "I recognize that girl! She was the one in the picture with that old man we killed while he was sleeping!"_

_Terra couldn't believe her ears. These assholes killed her father while he was sleeping! Who do they think they are? And what do they get out of killing innocent, defenseless people? Her arms began to shake in fury._

_"Yeah, so? Your point is...?" the leader sarcastically asked the other gang member._

_"My point is...oh. There was no point, boss," the gang member shrugged stupidly. "I was jus' saying..."  
_

_"Well keep your mouth shut! _I_ do the talkin' and we _all_ do the killin'!" the boss was angry. Terra would've laughed if she wasn't so angry, herself. These guys were _idiots_, using their brute strength to steal, kill and get what they wanted out of life. And she was going to put a stop to it._

_"Hey, guys. I don't like being ignored." Terra remarked before making her move. She dashed to the side, aiming a well-aimed kick to one man's neck, instantly breaking it. Using the momentum from the kick, she flipped over to another member, and stabbed him in the chest, pulling out the dagger with unnecessary force. She couldn't help it; she was pissed. The other men just stared, as they watched the stabbed victim fall, with their jaws dropped. They hadn't actually expected her to do anything at all. She blew her auburn tresses out of her face before she turned to fight the remaining members. '2 down. Lots more to go...'_

_As she made a move to strike down another member, five of them shot forward at once, prepared this time. These guys didn't have any weapons, though, so Terra did the honorable thing: she killed them without using her daggers at all. She watched them drop like flies, and rolled her shoulders back, sighing as adrenaline pumped through her veins. She wasn't about to stop now. Her whole 'bored' demeanor provoked a few more members to attempt to lay a hand on her, but abruptly, the leader's hand shot to the side, signaling them to stop. "You buffoons. What did we just spend all that time stealing?" he reached into his pocket and pulled out a few materia. One was green and the other was blue. 'Cure and Fire. Huh. I can still take 'em.' she thought to herself. Realization dawned on the other members as they pulled out their own stolen materia, as well. The leader was the only one to have a curative orb, however. _

_"Still confident, girlie?" the leader taunted. He began to howl with laughter as Terra took everyone's brief distraction for granted, darting forward to slash down two members with one swing, materia falling out of their hands as they plummeted to the ground. 'Geez. They didn't even see it coming.' _

_Even with their 'newly discovered' materia, some of the members had apprehensive looks on their faces. They were scared...of her. She laughed in her head. 'They better be. They deserve this for everything they've done.' She stared directly at one man, who seemed to be more scared than the others. He gasped, dropped his materia and fled the scene. "What a coward...Are you happy with the skill of your gang, Mr. Leader?" she mocked._

_"The name's Dart. And no," he glared at the remaining members of his gang, which was only about 10, causing them to be even more frightened than before. 'Wow. They're idiots _and_ cowards. I'm _really_ impressed," she sarcastically thought. "No, I am not happy. At. All." _

_At Dart's last sentence, five of the members looked at each other and fled, as well. Now there were only five men left, including Dart. 'Yeah. I can definitely still take 'em.'_

_Dart looked murderous. He looked at the other four members of his gang. "Are you gonna run, too?"_

_One of them, the bravest of the bunch, responded. "N-n-no, sir. We're gonna stick with you 'till the end."_

"_What 'end'? There is no end!" Dart shouted and nodded towards Terra. "Especially not from the likes of her! Come on, now boys. All together, we can tak-"_

"_We're a-a-all fighting, sir?" the brave man spoke again. "I thought you said you were strong enough to take down the best SOLDIER in the world, by yourself."_

_Terra couldn't control herself anymore. She laughed...out loud. "Hah! You think you can take down Sephiroth by yourself?!"_

_Dart didn't respond to Terra, but took out his anger at the brave man, instead. "You will shut the hell up and do what I say unless you want me to kill you, myself." He pulled out his own dagger that was hidden in one of the many pockets of his outfit and faced Terra. She wasn't scared, though. Even if they did manage to kill her, she wouldn't care. At least she could be with her parents... _

_She pounded her foot on the ground, crouching down into her battle stance. "Let's go." Dart suddenly whipped out his Fire materia and cast the spell directly at Terra whose eyes widened nervously. 'Shit.' Stiffening somewhat for the burning pain that was sure to soon follow, she bit her lip. The spell hit its target and Terra was engulfed in what felt like a sea of flames, licking and biting at her skin. Terra would not give Dart the pleasure of hearing her pain, however, and bit her lip even harder to keep from screaming out. When the spell subsided, Terra let out a huge puff of air and stumbled forward a few steps. 'Oww.' Her lip was steadily bleeding from biting down so hard on it. She looked up at Dart and licked her lips. "My turn now."_

_She launched one of her daggers at Dart, aiming for the materia in his hands. The speed of her dagger was so fast that Dart didn't even know it was coming until it nicked his hand, causing him to drop the materia. "SHIT!" He grasped his hand with his uninjured one to put pressure on the wound._

"_Fight with honor. You don't see me using materia, do you?" Terra gave a halfhearted laugh. "Shall we continue?"_

_Dart sneered at Terra. He gave a quick nod to the other four gang members, and together, they all sprinted towards her, ready to fight. The first one Terra took down was a terrible fighter; he had no common sense. He just lunged at her, as though he was going to tackle her, leaving her open for almost any attack. She made it quick, though, and punched him in the nose so hard that the bone was most likely forced into his brain, instantly killing him. The next one was a bit stronger. He actually connected his fist with Terra's cheek. She would've dodged it, but she was still in the motion of punching down the first guy. She staggered to the side a bit. But she wasn't finished. The jerk that punched her when she wasn't even looking was her next victim. Terra retaliated by roundhouse kicking him in the side of his head, then she finished him off by stabbing his chest with her dagger. Then, she made quick work of the last two imbeciles, as well, easily striking them down. All that was left was Dart._

"_Hmm. You're stronger than you look," Dart commented as though they were having a normal conversation over lunch._

"_Yeah?" Terra replied. "I get that a lot." She didn't want to keep chatting. She was ready to kill the person that was responsible for the death of her father and many other innocent people in Kalm. "Let's just get this over with..."  
_

_Terra ran towards him, aiming her dagger towards his chest, but he was too quick. He deflected the blade with his own, and somehow managed to slice her cheek open right after. She brought her free hand up to her cheek to feel warm liquid gushing out of it. "You'll pay for that one!" She jumped up and kicked him in the face, and while he was staggering backwards, she sliced open his cheek, as well. 'An eye for an eye...' They continued their fight for what felt like hours, neither willing to submit. By the time they were each bruised, cut, and tired, they still wouldn't quit._

"_Had...enough...?" Dart gasped through each word._

"_Nope." Terra was not out of breath at all. ' I guess Dad was right about how running everyday really does increase your stamina when you battle.' "But it looks like you have." _

_She saw an opening and took it. Dart didn't even have time to blink before he dropped down to his knees, watching her slowly pull her dagger from out of his chest. His eyes darted to hers confusedly. "How...?"_

"_Don't waste your breath. Your eyes aren't as fast as your mind." She pointed to her own eyes, but then her gaze dropped to the ground. "Dart. I'm sorry you and most of your men had to die...there had to be someone to set you in your place, though. You couldn't get away with your heinous crimes forever!"_

_Dart blinked slowly, absorbing Terra's words as he hunched over to lay on the ground. "You're...right..." Terra gasped. 'Must just be the fact that he's dying. Yeah, that's why...' He closed his eyes for the last time, and mumbled something else that Terra couldn't quite make out._

_Terra stood and whispered hurried prayers for the dead. Even in battle, Terra never liked to kill. Every single person was living and breathing, just like her, and she felt awful for taking that away, regardless of how evil the men were. Terra just couldn't hold herself back. 'They, themselves, have killed more people than I have killed today.' She bent over to pick up the green materia orb that Dart had dropped earlier. "Cure," she mumbled to herself as she became a bit more rejuvenated. "That feels better." Terra brushed her fingers along the side of her face. The gash was still there, but it had sealed itself from the power of the curative magic. _

_All of a sudden, she heard the clicking noises of the safeties of guns being released. "Freeze!" Terra slowly turned around to see a small group of SOLDIERs, facing her with guns raised._

"_Wait!" a man with dark, spiky hair, pushed through the group of men to face her as well. She could tell just by looking at him that he was First Class. He was wearing a purple uniform and had a huge-looking sword strapped to a holster on his back. He looked really strong. "Lower your weapons, men. Can't you tell that this little girl is not one of them?" He calmly approached Terra. _

_Terra stuck her chin up in a defiant manner. "I'm _not_ a little girl."_

_The spiky-haired SOLDIER raised his eyebrows and scratched the back of his jet-black hair in surprise as he looked her over. "Hmm. So you're not. You don't look much younger than me, actually."_

"_And how old are you?" Terra asked rudely._

"_Eighteen. Oh, and my name's Zack, by the way." The SOLDIER named Zack stuck his right hand out in a polite manner._

_Terra shook his hand, reluctantly. "I'm Terra."_

"_Okay, Terra," Zack chuckled. "Did you take out this gang by yourself?"_

"_Yes, I did." Terra crossed her arms. "What of it?"_

_Zack just laughed again and looked over at the several bodies scattered across the ground. "Um. How do I explain this?...This was a gang called 'Raw,' and Shinra had ordered SOLDIER to take them out several months ago. We have been trying to get them, but each time we come close, they get away at the last second."_

"_You guys obviously didn't try hard enough. Plus, that's not even the whole gang," Terra said. "Several of them ran off after I scared the crap out of them." _

_Zack's jaw dropped in a disbelieving way. "Y-You're not kidding, are you!? That must explain how they're always getting away...the cowards are good at fleeing."_

"_No, I'm not! And why the hell are you in such a good mood! You and your little soldiers," she pointed at the SOLDIER grunts. "Came too late! This gang killed many innocent people and stole a ton of materia, as well!! My father's dead because of them!"_

_Zack's smile finally disappeared. "I'm so sorry, Terra. We received a call in Midgar not too long ago, and we rushed over here as fast as we could. This is actually the first time anyone from First Class has accompanied the Third Class soldiers. I guess we figured they weren't much of a threat...I'm sorry."_

_Terra could tell that Zack was being genuine. 'Why am I being such a bitch to him? It's not like this is his fault.' "I'm sorry, Zack."_

_Zack's eyes widened. "What!? Why are you sorry? You have nothing to be sorry about!"_

"_I'm sorry..." Terra repeated. "For being so rude to you, at first. I'm just so upset about what these men did to my town. Now, I have nothing left..."_

_Zack walked over to Terra and put a reassuring arm around her shoulders, pulling her closer to him. "Hey, cheer up!" Terra couldn't help but crack a small smile at Zack's child-like attitude. "From what I can see, you're one hell of a fighter! That's gotta make you proud, right?"_

"_Not really," Terra's eyes were downcast. "Especially when I realize that there are many other people out there just like this gang; some even worse than them. It makes me sick! I just wish there was a way I could protect the innocent victims from those evil men..."_

_Suddenly, Zack lifted his arm from her shoulder and walked a few feet away from her. He had his arms crossed and kept pacing around every few seconds. Terra could her him muttering to himself about something, but she had no idea what was saying. 'It looks like he's having an argument with himself!' Zack stopped unexpectedly and exclaimed, "Yes! It could work!" He turned to face Terra with a huge, toothy grin on his face. "I have an idea, Terra! What would you say to joining SOLDIER!?"_

"_Wha-?" Terra couldn't believe her ears. He wanted her to join SOLDIER!? Was she even good enough? He obviously thought so..._

_Zack interrupted her thoughts. "The only thing is, females are extremely uncommon in our faction. You'll have to work extra hard!"_

"_Wait!" Terra was dramatically waving her arms in front of her. "You want me to join SOLDIER!?"_

"_Well, technically, you'd have to try out. You're still kinda young. You're what, fifteen? Sixteen?"_

"_I'm sixteen and you're only two years older than me!!" Terra exclaimed._

_Zack chuckled again. "True. But I," he paused for a dramatic effect. "Am awesome."_

_Terra laughed at the silly 'hero pose' he had struck while he was talking._

_Zack stopped doing his pose and looked at Terra. "Seriously, though, you have a lotta potential. We'll just have to see Sephiroth and see if he agr-"_

"_I get to meet S-Sephiroth?!" Terra stuttered._

"_You sure do!! First things first, though. You have to tell your family where you're going. I don't wanna be put on trial for kidnapping or something-"_

"_I don't have any family left. Growing up, I only had my dad. Now I have nothing."_

"_Oh." Zack had a lot of sympathy for Terra. "I kinda know how you feel." He put his arm around her shoulders once again. "My little sister...she ran off into the forest surrounding my hometown, Gongaga." He paused. Terra patiently waited for him to continue. "I think she was bored...I don't really remember; I was ten. Anyway, let's just say the local monsters weren't too happy that she walked right into their home."_

_Terra clapped her hand to cover the gasp that escaped her mouth. After a few moments of silence, Terra finally spoke. "I'm so sorry, Zack."_

"_Hey, no worries. I owe her a lot. She's the reason I started to train to be in SOLDIER," Zack explained. 'He must've been a great older brother,' she thought. From his happy-go-lucky personality to his comforting presence, he was the whole package. He even had the perfect toothy grin. Terra figured his little sister was truly blessed to have him as her brother while she was still alive._

"_So, anyway. Are you just gonna come with us, or do you wanna grab some of your belongings first?" Zack wondered._

"_I think I'll just go grab a few things from my house real quick!" Terra started to run back to her house._

"_Wait, Terra!" Zack ran over to stop her for a second. "I know it's a touchy subject, but what are you going to do with your father's body?"_

_Terra's eyes began to water. She rubbed her eyes roughly before any evidence of tears could be seen. "Um, you know, I think I may just call the local mortician and see if he can take care of it. There are going to be tons of other dead bodies in this town, anyway. My dad and I, we never really believed in holding funerals or anything like that. We believe that once a person is dead, they're gone. So my dad's body isn't my dad anymore to me. It's just a body. That sounds really awful, I know, but it's just how I feel." _

_Zack nodded his head. "No, I completely understand where you're coming from."_

"_Hey, Zack? How 'bout you just walk with me back to my house? Then, at least I can know where to meet all those other SOLDIERs so we can make our way to Midgar."_

"_Oh, sure. Good idea," Zack said. "I just need to do one thing before we go, though...hang on." He walked over to the grunts that were just standing there, staring off into space. Terra saw them nod their heads and run over to the bodies of the deceased 'Raw' members. Zack jogged back over to her. "Okay, let's go!"_

_End Flashback_

Terra stopped speaking for a brief second to see that everybody had looks of either shock, surprise, or sympathy on their faces. "Oh my gods! That's quite the story, Terra!" Tifa mentioned.

Terra blushed a bit. "That's not even the whole story yet."

"There's more!?" Yuffie interjected. "Geez! You've been through a lotta shit! Okay, okay! But before you continue, I just gotta say one thing that was kinda making me laugh while you were talking!"

"What's that, Yuffie?" Cloud asked.

"Those SOLDIER grunts sure are useless, aren't they, Terra? I mean all they did was stand there, either pointing their guns at the wrong person, or stare off into space-"

Next to Tifa, Cloud visibly blanched. "What's wrong, chocobo-head?" Yuffie pressed.

"Yuffie." Cloud said in a very slow, calm voice. It almost scared Yuffie. "I was one of those 'useless' grunts that day."

Yuffie had to cover her mouth with both of her hands to keep herself from laughing out loud. "Oh," she responded with her mouth still covered.

The look on Yuffie's face was priceless. It was as though she was in the middle of two, very opposite, facial expressions. The surrounding group couldn't help but laugh; even Cloud. "Leave it to Yuffie to lighten even the darkest of moods," Vincent remarked from beneath his cloak. Yuffie finally removed her hands from her face and gave them a huge smile.

"That's why you guys love me so much!!"

* * *

A/N: YAY! CH. 4 Completo! Please, Please, Please Submit REVIEWS for lil ol' me!! They really keep me going!! Plus, I would LOVE to hear what you guys think about this story so far! LOVE YOU ALL!


	5. Explanations Pt 2

Thank you everyone for your continuous reviews, alerts and adds. They just make my day! ) And I'm soooo sorry I haven't gotten a chance to update in a LOOONG time! Forgive me!! I've been so busy working this summer, then I went out of town, so I haven't had much time to devote to this. THEN, when I got back, stupid nebraska had stupid (but scary) tornadoes!! we lost power for a few days...no lie. it's been a pretty hectic month. But here it is now! This one is the **longest** chappie so far to make up for me being so late! ENJOY!

(Oh and I didn't do flashbacks in italics b/c i thought maybe that was a bit hard to read...)

**Disclaimer**: I don't own FFVII...I wish I did...'

* * *

Chapter 5: Explanations-Part 2

Terra watched Yuffie and the ongoing scene with an amused expression. '_So this is what I've missed out on. Friendship. Laughter. Fun. I can only hope that once I finish telling them my story, they'll still want me around them...' _Terra's lips slowly contorted into a small frown. Cloud noticed this sudden mood change.

"Terra. You ready to go on with your story?" Cloud had such concern in his eyes. It reminded Terra of the good old days when they were back in SOLDIER. They had created such fond memories together with Zack...and Sephiroth...

"...you know." Cloud was looking at Terra expectantly. "Did you even hear what I said?"

Terra gave a shy smile. "Um...sorry. I didn't quite catch the last part."

"I said that we can always take a break, you know," Cloud's eyes were _still_ filled with concern. Terra felt as if her heart was about to implode. She looked around the table at all the other expectant, worried faces surrounding her. They had all stopped their laughter once Cloud had addressed Terra. She felt like she didn't deserve this kind of treatment, or this kind of attention. "It's hard reliving painful memories like that. Trust me, I know," continued Cloud. Tifa gave Cloud a sympathetic caress on his arm at his last comment.

Terra quickly put on a fake-smile; one that no one could _easily_ see through. "No, it's fine! I can continue my story..."

-Flashback-

They finally reached Midgar after a few hours in an incredibly cramped Shinra truck. _'I feel so bad for that one soldier! He looked so sick. I was afraid he was gonna pass out! Zack kept talking the poor guy through it, though, throwing out advise and suggestions. Zack's such a decent person. I can already tell just by watching how he interacts with everyone around him, and I've only known him for a little more than half a day!... '_

"Hey, Terra!" Zack was several yards away from the truck, standing next to the guy that Terra remembered as the one who was carsick. He was motioning her to join them with over-exaggerated hand gestures. "Come over here! There's someone I want you to meet!" Terra broke away from her thoughts and ran over to where Zack was standing.

The third class soldier took off his helmet to reveal blond, spiky hair and bright blue, mako-inhanced eyes. _'What is it with spiky hair and bright blue eyes here?'_

"Terra, this is my good friend, Cloud. Cloud, this is Terra." Zack motioned from one person to the other as he said their names, informally introducing them to each other. Cloud gave a shy smile and stuck his hand out as a greeting. Terra gladly accepted the gesture and returned the handshake.

"Nice to meet you, Cloud." Terra already felt like she was home. These people, especially Zack, were very friendly to her and they accepted her for who she was. They even complimented her on her talent as a fighter during their ride to Midgar. _'Most people back home just made fun of me for even trying. All just because I'm a girl...'_

"Hey, Terra. Cloud's sixteen, too!" Zack elbowed Cloud in the gut. "Right, Cloud?" Cloud wordlessly nodded his head.

Terra couldn't help but laugh at Zack. It seemed as if he was trying to make her feel as comfortable here as he possibly could, and she really appreciated it. Whether or not Zack realized it, she already felt more at ease around him than she felt around anyone else...besides her father, of course. "That's cool, Cloud...hey, has anyone ever told you that you have a really interesting name?"

Cloud looked surprised. "Um...no, actually. I haven't heard that."

"Hmm. Well, it is. It's a name that's deserving of a cool nickname, ya know?!" Terra mentioned. She was feeling more comfortable around Cloud by the second, as well. He had a comforting aura about him.

"Is it?" Cloud wondered.

"Yup. I'll just have to think of a good nickname! Just give me a bit of time first to get to know you a little better!" Terra laughed.

Cloud joined in with Terra's laughter. He didn't seem as shy anymore. Zack seemed to notice this and smiled his own toothy grin while looking from Terra to Cloud, and back again. '_What a dork. He thinks that he actually helped this along. Whatever. I can play along with it.' _"Well, thanks for introducing us, Zack! Where to now?"

Zack seemed very proud of himself; he had a very dignified smirk on his face. "No prob, guys. And I think we should probably bring you over to our main headquarters. Don't you think, Cloud?" Cloud nodded his head in agreement. "Then, you can see if this is still what you really want to do."

"Trust me, I won't change my mind...but, didn't you say I had to try-out, or something like that?" Terra prodded Zack on his back from behind while they started their journey to the SOLDIER headquarters.

Zack shrugged. "Well, yeah. I don't really have a doubt that you'll have trouble making it in, though. You truly seem like you're a force to be reckoned with."

Red blotches slowly worked their way to Terra's cheeks. "T-Thanks!"

"The only problem is...well, I kinda have to talk to Sephiroth first," Zack flashed them a nervous smile as they continued on their path. "He, uh,...he tends to get a bit angry when so-called 'insubordinates,'" Zack used two fingers to air-quote the word. "Do stuff without telling him beforehand."

Cloud started laughing at Zack's expense. "Zack, he only started doing that recently because you-"

"Okay, okay!!" Zack stopped walking and was frantically waving his arms in Cloud's face to stop him from finishing his sentence. "Terra doesn't need to know about that! Come on, she's not even officially in SOLDIER yet!"

Terra huffed and crossed her arms in feigned annoyance. "Fine then. But, Zack, you have to promise to tell me when I make it in!!"

"If you make it in..." Cloud added, causing both Zack and Terra to simultaneously snap their heads toward Cloud. "Just kidding guys...geez." They continued their friendly banter all the way to the SOLDIER headquarters.

"Whoa..." Terra couldn't find any other words to describe the huge building she was looking at. Her eyes scanned the bottom to the seemingly never-ending top of the building. "And I thought that other building was huge..."

"Oh, Rin's shop? Yeah, that's nothing compared to this." Cloud agreed.

Zack stepped in between the gazing teens and put one arm around each of their shoulders. "Well, we would've had our own building to ourselves, but what with the Shinra building being, for lack of a better word, _huge_, Mr. President just let us have our own part in it. It's like a building in a building!" Zack side-glanced at Terra. "Don't get lost!"

Terra's eyes widened at the thought. "...W-What if I do?"

"Oh, don't worry. We'll send someone to pick up your remains," Zack assured her in a nonchalant manner. Terra's eyes bugged out even more, if that was even possible. Cloud just laughed from Zack's other side.

"He's just messin' with you, Terra. You won't get lost."

"Yeah, I guess Cloud's right. If even he can manage to find his way in there, you'll be fine." Zack patted Cloud's shoulder, causing Cloud to indignantly defend himself about his remarkable sense of direction.

Zack had, once again, managed to make Terra feel better. The tension that had once been steadily building up in her chest was now gone. _'Maybe I should stick with him, though, for now. Just in case. It would be really scary to get lost in there. I hear there are some parts of the building that are for experimentation and stuff like that...'_ She bit her lip to keep it from trembling at the disturbing thought.

"Shall we?" Zack broke apart from Terra and Cloud, and pointed his arms toward the front doors of the building. Terra couldn't find the ability to use her own voice to respond, so she, somewhat shakily, nodded her head in agreement.

--

Terra felt like mentally slapping herself for continuously gasping and dropping her jaw like an idiot in awe at the interior of the humongous building that Zack was showing her. He and Cloud gave her a full tour of the place, which took several hours to do, considering the size of the place, and she couldn't say she was surprised to _be_ surprised at all the different and interesting branches in the building. Since she assumed the _long_ tour was over, Terra said thanks one more time to Zack and Cloud (she was saying that a lot today), and turned to go. Before she got the chance to make her way back to the SOLDIER headquarters of the building, she suddenly felt a strong hand gripping her wrist. She turned back to her two new friends, obviously confused.

"I thought I would just go back to the dormitory area and take a quick nap while you talked to Sephiroth about my try-out." Zack's cheeks visibly reddened at her comment. From the way he was scratching the back of his head in hesitance, Terra could guess that maybe he wanted to stall his encounter with Sephiroth for as long as possible. She couldn't understand why, though.

"Wait!" He released his grip at her little interjection. "You weren't planning on talking to him at _all_ today, were you?" She thought it was a bit strange to be on the receiving end of questioning glances, interested stares, and downright confused facial expressions all throughout the tour. _'I guess if I worked here, I would be curious if one of our best SOLDIERs randomly came back with a young girl at his side, showing her the entire edifice...especially without an explanation!' _Zack interrupted her thoughts by chuckling...loudly.

"Oh, no. That's not it...well, I mean Sephiroth _is_ still kinda mad at me...but that's not why I stopped you." He sighed with a relaxed expression on his face. Terra could tell that he really loved being here. _And_ that he had a good, however odd, friendship with Sephiroth. _'Does that mean I'll be in close proximity with Sephiroth. Wait, I guess that's only if I make it in. WAIT! They said I would, right? I just need to stop confusing myself!...' _

"Yeah...um...there's still one more place I wanted to show you. It's a couple of floors up from here."

"Zack, she doesn't _have_ to see that." Cloud's voice drifted into the conversation. Zack aimed his gaze at Cloud.

"Well, it's better if she sees it and is expecting it rather than if he decides to pop up, the creeper he is, and start talking to her about the various new methods he's trying out." He shivered as he finished speaking. Terra was still confused; what they were talking about sounded really weird.

"What are you guys talking about?"

"You'll see when we get there, kay? Then it will all make a little bit more sense to you," Zack offered.

"O-Okay..." Terra replied. _'I don't have a very good feeling about this.' _She followed Zack's lead into one of the elevators, and the three of them went up until almost the top of the building. _'How many floors does this place have!' _To Terra, the ride seemed very long, but it couldn't have actually been more than a minute, otherwise Zack would have started up a conversation to pass the time. Then again, he seemed a little uneasy about this thing they were going to show her. _'I wonder why he's acting like that.' _The elevator made a beeping noise, indicating that it's reached its destination, and the doors slowly opened. _'I guess I'm about to find out...'_

Zack let out a exasperated sigh. "It's this way." He stepped out of the elevator, followed by Cloud, then Terra, and led them down a blindingly white hallway. Terra noticed that the hallway was completely desolate. When they came across intersecting hallways, Terra saw that they were identical to the one that she was walking down right now. The only differences were the huge metal doors that were scattered throughout all the halls, each having some sort of description of what lay beyond it. Terra was too apprehensive to read what any of them said, however. She just figured that they were all little branches off of the one department they were in right now. _'And that department is...?' _

"The Science Department." Zack said as he opened a door at the end of the hallway they were walking down. "This particular area is where Professor Hojo works." He stopped inside the laboratory, waiting for Cloud and Terra to join him inside. "I thought it would be a good idea to show you this for yourself, rather than you hearing things that might creep you out, or gods forbid, you accidentally stumble upon this by mistake!"

Terra's jaw dropped for what felt like the millionth time that day. Everything around her was like something out of a nightmare. A nightmare about mad scientists...and experiments. _'At least Hojo isn't a mad scientist or anything. This stuff only looks creepy to me because I'm allowing it to creep me out!' _"This...isn't..._that_ scary..." Terra breathed out as she continued to look around her, trying to look brave.

"Whew!" Zack came over and patted her on the shoulder, somewhat forcefully. It's not like he did it hard on purpose, though. When Zack gets excited, he can't exactly hold back. "I'm so glad you don't think so! I was worried this place would give you nightmares like it gave me when I first came in here."

"This place gave you nightmares?" Cloud wondered.

"Yeah?!" Zack defended himself. "That was a long time ago! Plus, have you not seen what's in here! People...and..._things_ get poked and prodded and forced to do little tests and gods only know what else and-"

"Okay! We get the idea!" Terra interrupted. "I don't want to be forced to visualize everything that was in every single one of your bad dreams!"

"Not bad dreams. Nightmares." Zack calmly stated.

"You're not embarrassed about that at all?" Cloud laughed. "I mean, this stuff isn't really that scary. Hojo just does some random boring tests for the Science Department. It's not like he mutates anything, or even _kills_ anything." Zack shook his head slowly with an incredulous look on his face that read: "Why should I be?"

Terra was getting a bit freaked out by the way Zack so calmly explained that he was once had nightmares about the place that they were now nonchalantly discussing. "Okay, let me get this straight. You wanted to bring me in here so I would at least have some idea of what this is...versus...what?" She looked up to see Zack silently chuckling. "What's so funny?"

"Maybe I just wanted to see if you were brave enough to be cut out for SOLDIER, after all."

"Hey!" Terra crossed her arms in defense. "So you were lying about having nightmares?"

"Well, no I wasn't-"

"What do you think you're doing in here?" came a deep, masculine voice from behind them. They all hastily turned around to see who had just addressed them. Terra was surprised to see two men behind them, and they were obviously annoyed. One was very tall, with long silver hair and a deadly sword sheathed behind him. _'...Sephiroth? Then that huge sword must be the...Masamune?'_ The other was a scrawny, middle-aged man, with greasy black hair, thick glasses, and a disgusting smirk on his face. From just looking at them, Terra could tell that it was Sephiroth who had spoken first. When the other man spoke next, Terra almost laughed out loud. His voice sounded a tiny bit like a teenage boy who was going through puberty. It was just slightly lower in pitch, but it had more cracks in it as he spoke.

"Why are you soldiers in my laboratory without first having my permission?" _'So this must be Hojo.'_ His beady eyes then turned on Terra. "And who is this young lady?"

Terra looked over at Cloud, who silently cursed under his breath, and Zack, who was nervously grinning at Sephiroth. "Well, Sephiroth, you know how we had to go to Kalm on that call about that one gang, Raw?"

"Is this going to be a long story?" Sephiroth already sounded bored and crossed his arms. Terra was watching all of his moves carefully. She didn't know why she was doing it, but she couldn't help herself. _'His arms are so built...no I take that back. _He_ is so built.' _Terra couldn't believe how strong he looked in person; she had only heard stories about the legendary general.

Zack laughed and scratched the back of his head again. "Well, maybe. Do you want to hear the long version or the short version?" Cloud elbowed him in the ribs while whispering something that sounded a lot like 'insubordinates.' "Okay, okay, long story short, when we got there, the majority of the gang was already taken care of-"

"By who?" Sephiroth uncrossed his arms, and his brows were furrowed in slight annoyance.

"Terra." Zack threw his arm around her shoulders and pulled her close to him. "She managed to scare off the ones that weren't already dead."

"You are telling me that this _girl_ single-handedly took out Raw?" Terra was offended. Yes, she was a girl. Yes, she was younger than most great fighters. Does that mean she wasn't a great fighter, herself. No! But that didn't seem to convince Sephiroth one bit. She felt like she should defend herself from the scrutiny in his disbelieving eyes.

"Yes, I did." Terra took a couple steps closer to him. "And the reason I'm here with Zack and Cloud," she looked over at Hojo to see his eyes twinkling with an unknown emotion. It gave her a foreboding feeling. She shook it off and continued. "Is because Zack thought that I would be a nice recruit for SOLDIER."

Hojo burst out in obnoxious cackles at her last statement. "You? In SOLDIER? There are _no_ girls in SOLDIER, young lady!"

Terra snapped her head in Zack's direction. "But Zack said that they were uncommon, not unheard of-"

"What he may or may not have said about females in SOLDIER is false," Sephiroth remarked while taking a step closer to Terra. He hadn't stopped staring at her since she blurted out her defensive comment. "There are females who have joined the Turks and the various departments of this Shinra Company. The females who attempt to join SOLDIER, however?...Let us just say that they did not pass the first test that we humored them with."

"What!?" Terra wasn't frightened by his comment. Or even by the fact that he hadn't taken her eyes off of her since she chose to run her mouth off. No. She wasn't frightened at all. Terra was just furious. She came all this way with Zack and Cloud just to run into the most famous general in the world, who was trying to discourage her from completing her goal. Only she wouldn't let Sephiroth discourage her. If anything, his insulting comments made her want to be in SOLDIER even more, just to prove wrong what everyone has always said about her. She'll show Sephiroth who's wrong once she makes it into SOLDIER. "Like I'm gonna let you scare me off!" _'Great! Now I sound like a little kid! Let's try that again...' _"I mean, you're wrong...especially if you think you know anything about me at all." Terra crossed her arms to show how serious she was. "I'm gonna pass this 'test,' and then I'm going to laugh in all of your faces!" _'That was even more childish! I'm shutting up now...' _

"Yeah, Sephiroth! You didn't see the scattered bodies in that alleyway," Zack defended from behind Terra. He didn't seem to think she was acting childish. _'I've never cared how I sounded in front of anyone else. Why is Sephiroth any different?'_ "I just have a feeling that she is _incredibly_ talented."

"Don't even get me started on you, Zack. You had no authority to bring her here," Sephiroth finally tore his gaze away from Terra and walked over to Zack. "You are not on the recruitment team, correct? And you are not on the _tour guide_ committee, correct?"

"We have a tour guide committee?" Cloud interrupted.

"He was being sarcastic, Cloud." Terra whispered, slapping her hand to her forehead in exasperation.

"No, you are not, Zack." Sephiroth ignored Cloud's comment. His voice was so steady, so calm. It was eerie. _'Like the calm before the storm. I would _not_ like to get on his bad side. Then again, maybe I could take him. His tough machismo act may just be to scare everybody off.'_

"Come on, Sephiroth! You have to see her fight to believe me!" Zack didn't appear to be at all terrified of the looming presence in front of him. On closer examination, it may actually look like Zack was having a good time bugging Sephiroth, seeing as there was a trace of a smirk on his face.

"Have _you_ even seen her fight?" Hojo's annoying voice interrupted.

"Well, no-"

"Then why should anyone even bother giving her the time of day?" Sephiroth demanded. Zack didn't back down, though.

"Because _you_ gave me the time of day when no one else did!" Zack countered. Sephiroth seemed slightly taken aback for a split second. Terra almost didn't even catch it. Sephiroth blinked twice, but then regained his normal composure. He slowly looked from Terra to Zack, then back again, his icy blue orbs piercing.

"10:00 tomorrow morning. The training facility. You know which area." Sephiroth turned his back to the three of them. "We will see if you are right about her, Zack, because if you aren't..." he trailed off and turned to Hojo. "We will continue our discussion early tomorrow morning, if you wish." Then Sephiroth left.

"Well, isn't this interesting." Hojo scurried over to Terra and was looking at her as though she was one of his specimens. While he was doing this, he was mumbling randomly to himself. "Indeed. Well, then. Do come visit me whenever you want, young lady. I have a feeling you may be around here for a little while longer." He cackled then turned to Zack and Cloud. "Now!" Hojo clapped his hands, then rubbed them together as though he was bracing himself for something. "Get out of my laboratory, please. I have some work I need to finish up on."

Terra was out of the lab before he even finished his request. Zack and Cloud followed a few moments later. "I think I've had enough of this tour for one day. How about we finish it up by having you guys show me where the dormitory area is so I can go to sleep. It's been...a long and eventful day, you guys." _'I can't believe that this morning, my father was killed. It seems like a lifetime ago. So much in my life has already changed. Now it's for the better...I hope.'_

"Yeah, definitely. Just follow us. It's getting late anyway." Zack yawned dramatically. "I think I'll crash, too. What about you, Cloud?"

"Yeah, being on the 'tour guide committee' sure takes it out of you!" Cloud said, earning him a whack on the back of the head from Zack.

"Speaking of that, did you really not know he was being sarcastic?" Zack asked.

"Well...it was too serious and stiff in there so I just wanted to loosen everybody up with a little joke. Sephiroth usually thinks it's kind of funny...but he was still too angry to care."

"Is he always like that? Sephiroth, I mean?" Terra quietly asked.

"Oh, Sephiroth?" Cloud chuckled. "Like we said earlier, he's still mad at Zack for-"

"Cloud!" Zack put his hands over Cloud's mouth. "Remember the deal from before? We can tell her once she makes it in!" He removed his hands from Cloud's face and whacked him upside the head again.

"Ow! Will you stop hitting me, already?!" Cloud howled.

"Sorry, it's just so much fun!" Zack laughed and hit him again, this time a lot softer. "No more head injuries for you if you just keep your mouth closed. Deal?"

"Fine," Cloud muttered while rubbing his head. "I don't know why you're making such a big deal about it, though. This time tomorrow, she's going to know."

"Yeah? Well, maybe it'll give her a little bit of motivation until then!"

Terra smiled to herself as she listened to them banter back and forth. _'They're like brothers to each other. They fight, but you can tell they care a lot about each other. They're so lucky to have that kind of family...'_ Terra yawned and tried to blink away her drowsiness. It was a losing battle, so she leaned up against the hallway wall and closed her eyes, waiting for them to stop arguing so they could show her where she could sleep. _'I'm more tired than I thought I was...' _The last thing she could remember is hearing Zack's soft laughter, and feeling strong arms scoop her up into a firm chest.

--

She was in heaven. There was no other explanation. She was laying down on a cloud. No other thing could have made her feel more comfortable. It was billowy and bouncy and beautiful. _'Hmm. I think I remember the name of this type of cloud. Cirrus? No..it was...cumulus!! Yeah, that's it!' _She rolled onto her stomach to see other clouds scattered around her. There were all sorts of clouds with all sorts of people on them. They were all people she knew at one time or another. Her parents were together on a cirrus cloud, looking _very_ in love and _very_ happy to be together. They didn't even spare her a glance. Terra didn't mind, though. She continued looking around and spotted her new friends Cloud and Zack. Cloud was on a billowy cloud just like hers, smiling at her. _'Another cumulus. Haha. Cloud's on a cloud!' _Zack, however, was on a stratus cloud. He was sprawled across the long, jagged cloud, looking as relaxed as she had ever seen anyone look. When he saw her looking, he just gave her a friendly smile and a thumbs up. Terra returned the gesture happily.

Suddenly, Terra felt cold. Something was wrong. She looked at all the happy people on their clouds to see that they felt it too. They were no longer smiling. She turned her head in the direction of their gazes and gasped at what she saw. A huge cumulonimbus cloud was approaching all of them, causing wind to whip in all of their faces. It was dark. It was cold. And it was scary. Terra looked to the top of the cloud to see Hojo sitting on it. _'What is he doing up there? He could hurt someone with that thing!' _She tried to shout out warnings at him to be careful, but she found that no matter how hard she tried, her voice wouldn't function. She looked around at the surrounding clouds, trying to shout to them, as well, only to have the same effect. No one even looked in her direction. Hojo wouldn't stop. He kept coming closer and closer towards Terra and her cloud. She attempted to move her cloud away from Hojo's path, but regardless of how hard she willed it to, it wouldn't budge. Hojo's cloud was going to hit her head on. It was inevitable. She closed her eyes, bracing herself for the impact.

Terra opened her eyes, still waiting for the clouds to collide. She was shocked to discover that the clouds were colliding right before her eyes, but she didn't feel the force. Now that she thought about it, she couldn't feel anything. Or move any part of her body for that matter. _'Why can't I move?' _All she could do was look into Hojo's menacing eyes as his monstrous cloud demolished her own cloud. With nothing remaining, Terra began to slowly fall downward. There was nothing she could do about it. She couldn't move to save herself. As she was falling, Hojo's cloud, directly above her, let off an ominous strike of lightning before it began to rain torrentially on her as she drifted downwards. One thing that struck her as odd, was the interesting shape on the side of Hojo's cloud. It looked like the silhouette of a man with long hair that blended in with the color of the cloud. _'Is that...could that be...Sephiroth?' _Just as she finished her thought, Sephiroth made himself known, spreading out his arms, falling off the side of the cloud. _'No! Don't fall!' _It was too late. He was falling...fast; at a much faster rate than she was. He was like a bullet; she was like a feather. He finally caught up with Terra and reached out to sweep her into his arms. She was surprised to see an idyllic expression on his face. _'Why did you...come after me?' _Terra still couldn't find the ability to use her voice, but it didn't matter anyway. It was as though Sephiroth knew what she just thought.

His deep voice surprisingly comforted her doubts and fears. "It's okay. You can wake up now." _'But I'm not sleeping...'_

"Terra! Wake up! You don't want to be late for your try-out, do you?!" a cheerful voice drifted into her mind. Everything went black and she could no longer see Sephiroth.

_'What try-out?...Where am I?'_

"Yeah, get up! Don't you want to prove Sephiroth wrong?" a second, friendly voice added. "You have to be _conscious_ to do that!"

_'Sephiroth...?' _"Sephiroth!" Terra's eyes popped open and she jolted upright in her comfy bed.

"Yes, Sephiroth...? Are you okay, Terra?" Zack brushed the back of his hand across her flushed cheeks to feel her temperature. "You seem out of breath. Like you just had a...nightmare?" Zack's eyes widened guiltily. "Oh no, Terra, I'm so sorry! I knew I never should've brought you into Hojo's lab!"

Terra waved off Zack's hand. "No! No, I'm fine! Trust me. I was just a little confused, is all." She got out of her bed and stretched. "Have you ever had a dream where you wake up, but you're not really _up_. Then you mix up the dreams with reality?" Zack and Cloud laughed, nodding their heads. "Yeah. That just happened to me, unfortunately. I actually have a question, though. How did I get here last night. I don't remember coming here," Terra looked around her to see an huge dormitory filled with empty single, double, and bunk-beds. "Wherever _here_ is."

Zack just gave her another one of his genuine friendly smiles. "Last night, while Cloud and I were...fighting, you kinda...fell asleep against the wall. So, once I noticed it, I felt really bad because I forgot all about getting you a bed to sleep in because I was so into it with Cloud," he nodded at Cloud and shrugged. "I didn't want to wake you, so I just carried you here."

"Thanks, Zack. That was so nice of you!" Terra giggled. "Though, now that I think of it, you probably wouldn't have been able to wake me up, regardless. I sleep like a rock."

"Yeah," Cloud smirked. "We noticed."

Terra punched his shoulder. "Hey, it's not like I can help it! Plus, I was really tired!"

"Yeah," Zack added. "We noticed that, too."

"Why are you two ganging up on me!? Is today some unmarked day on the calendar that I don't know about?"

"Yeah," Zack said, but before Terra could punch him, too, he quickly added, "It's the day you're going to make it to SOLDIER!"

"Oh, right! The try-out. What time is it, you guys?" Terra wondered.

"It's 9:00," Cloud replied. "You have just enough time to get changed and get something to eat. We should be at the training facility by a quarter to ten, though. Just to be safe."

"I can't just wear this?" Terra stuck her hands into the pockets of her baggy, black sweatpants.

"You could," Zack shrugged again. "But is that going to be the best thing you could possibly fight in?"

"Maybe not. Do you guys have something I could borrow?" Terra bit her lip in apprehension.

"You're in luck! Just last week, Cloud and I messed up while we were experimenting with our laundry. Let's just say I accidentally shrunk one of my uniforms." He pointed to his own purple and navy blue outfit. "And by shrunk, I mean _really_ shrunk. If it fits, you can just keep it."

"Sweet! That'll work, hopefully. Where's the uniform?" Terra was starting to get excited. She couldn't wait to show Sephiroth that she _was_ a good fighter.

"I think it's in our dorm. It's not far from here. Just follow me." Zack headed out of her dorm, doing the windmill with his right arm to have them follow him.

--

"Alright, Terra. Show us how it looks, already! We don't have that much time left." Cloud pleaded from the outside of the room Terra was using to change.

"Hang on! I'm just trying to...fix...something...There!" Terra whipped open the door to reveal a purple and blue uniform, identical to Zack's, except it was many sizes smaller. Tight in all the right places and loose in all the right places, it was an all-around perfect fit. Zack and Cloud just stared, dumbstruck, at her. _'Why are they looking at me like that?' _"Guys? What's wrong?" She walked up to Zack and loudly clapped by his ear, causing him to snap out of it.

"Ow! Why'd you do that?" Zack whined while rubbing his ear.

"You guys were staring! I hate it when people stare at me. It gives me a weird feeling!" Terra wrapped her arms around her stomach in embarrassment.

"Sorry about that. We've just never seen a girl in that particular uniform before. It looks...good on you," Cloud mumbled. Then he looked at the clock on the wall. "Oh, no! We only have 10 minutes to get to the facility! And Sephiroth hates it when people aren't on time!"

"Maybe we shouldn't have stopped for breakfast before I brought Terra to the uniform..." Zack absentmindedly rubbed the side of his arm.

"You're right. Too late for regrets now, though. We gotta go!" Cloud exclaimed before taking off down the hall to enter the elevators once more. "Come on!"

--

In the elevator, Terra was starting to get a little nervous. _'What if I mess up? Where will I go? I have nothing left...'_

"So, Terra. What was your dream about?" Zack was leaning against the side of the elevator with his arms crossed, waiting to get to the floor of the training facility. "When we walked in, you were mumbling Sephiroth's name."

"I-I was?" Terra's eyes widened at the thought. She didn't really want to have to think about her dream again. _'It was such a bizarre dream. I still don't know why Sephiroth was even in it.' _"Well, that might be because he was in my dream."

"Sephiroth was in your dream? What aren't you telling us, Terra?" Cloud teased.

"Yeah, right. You guys were in my dream, too," Terra giggled. "_That_ made it a nightmare."

"Ha. Ha. Very funny," Zack kept pressing on, however. "Seriously. What was your dream about?"

"Hmm. You know what? I don't really remember the whole thing," she lied. "I just remember that there were a bunch of people sitting on a bunch of clouds."

"Clouds?" Cloud asked.

"Yes, Cloud, clouds," Terra laughed. "You know what else, Cloud? I've finally thought of a great nickname for you, even though I've only known you for a day!"

"What's the nickname?" Cloud's eyes twinkled with interest.

"Well, in my dream, you and I were both on the same type of cloud. We each had our own, but they were pretty much identical. I've been pretty good with identifying clouds because back in Kalm, I would always sit on this one hill, watching the clouds drift by in the sky," Terra's gut clenched. It still hurt to think of Kalm. _'I'm better off not thinking of it at all.' _"Anyway, it was a cumulus cloud. Therefore," she walked over to him and motioned for him to kneel down. "You shall be branded henceforth with the worthy nom de guerre: Cumulus!" she playfully tapped each of his shoulders with her right hand, as though she was knighting him. "You like it?"

Cloud stood up and gave her a huge smile. "Of course I do. Thank you."

"What about me?" Zack childishly whined from behind Cloud and Terra.

"What about you?" Terra countered.

"I should get a nickname, too! Was I even really in your dream?" Zack complained with a fake pout on his face. Terra couldn't help but laugh.

"Wouldn't you like to know," she teased. The elevator chose that moment to beep, signaling its arrival on the floor of the training facility. They all stepped out. _'So this is the training facility...' _Terra looked around to see all kinds of doors for the different levels of training for SOLDIER members. There were also a few first aid areas, just in case of an accident. "So which area is my try-out in?"

"I actually don't know," Cloud commented. "Do you know, Zack?"

Zack chuckled. "Yes, I do. You know when Sephiroth said that I'd know which area? Well, that's because it's the same area where I had my first evaluation as a soldier. At the beginning, no one was sure that I was good enough to stay in SOLDIER..." he trailed off.

"So, when no one else thought you could do it, Sephiroth gave you a chance?" Terra was nervously messing with her new outfit. _'From the way the _legendary_ general was acting yesterday, he'll probably never believe I can actually do this...'_

"Pretty much."

"He doesn't seem like the type of person to take chances that show that he may actually have a heart," Terra wrapped her arms around her chest. Her stomach was starting to hurt, as well. _'Maybe I shouldn't have eaten anything.' _"I mean, I've heard all the stories about him. He's unbelievably strong, and he's a great general, but he's a loner. I can't see him going out of his way for you, Zack. No offense."

"Looks like you don't know as much about Sephiroth as you thought you did," Zack replied nonchalantly. "He may seem cold and heartless. He may even appear to hate everyone around him. But that doesn't stop him from being one of my most trusted comrades," he smirked at Cloud, "_and_ friends."

Cloud smiled at Terra. "Yeah, he's actually a pretty decent guy. Once you get to know him, that is."

"So what am I supposed to do until _that_ point?" Terra wondered.

"Looks like you're shit outta luck!" Zack chuckled. Terra glared in return. "Just kidding! Stand your ground like you did yesterday. Don't let him scare you. Don't take any unnecessary crap. You'll be fine!"

Terra muttered under her breath. "I just have to get through this try-out first." Zack suddenly stopped walking in front of her, so she slowly approached the large metal double-doors that he was facing. "Is this the place?" She glanced at the sign on the side of the wall next to the doors, which read: "Area B."

"This is it. You ready?" Zack side-glanced at Terra.

"As ready as I'll ever be."

"Good." Zack approached the doors, letting the sensors in front of his face detect whether or not he is allowed entry. When it beeped its approval and slid upon its doors, all three of them entered.

"You're late." Sephiroth's deep, calm voice resounded in the seemingly empty training room of Area B.

Terra flinched and looked around her. Area B was humongous. There were outlines of what appeared to be doors and windows placed sporadically throughout the large, metal complex. _'I wonder what those are for.' _But it was empty. If she were to shout in this all-metal area, her voice would be sure to echo.

Zack confidently walked over to where Sephiroth was sitting, a huge grin plastered on his chronically cheerful face. "That's my fault. She needed to borrow clothes, but we ate first. Then-"

"I don't want to hear your excuses. I have a meeting with Hojo that I need to attend in an hour. Let us make this quick," Sephiroth seemed bored.

Terra was offended, yet again, by Sephiroth's lazy demeanor concerning her. She came a long way to get this far. Well, figuratively, at least. She wasn't about to let this jerk bring her down. _'Oh, I'll make it quick, alright.' _Terra balled her hands into fists to stop her hands from shaking out of frustration.

Sephiroth sent his penetrating gaze in her direction. "Are you ready?"

"You bet."

Sephiroth stood up and approached Terra. "You will have to take on anything and everything that stands in your way once _we_," he glimpsed at Cloud and Zack, "leave this confinement. Do you see that room over there with the large window looking into this area?" Terra nodded. _'That's the only thing that looks like and _is_ a window in this whole space!'_

"That is where I will observe you and your fighting tactics. I am not going to tell you the quantity or the skill of what you will soon be up against, for in a real surprise attack, you would not have any prior knowledge of your attackers. Do you understand?" Terra nodded her head slowly. _'He's making me feel like I'm an idiot or something. _Obviously, _I would have never expected him to give me any words of advise, let alone a little warning.' _

Sephiroth continued, "Fight as though you are not being watched," he turned away from her and he, Cloud, and Zack strode over to the secret observation room. "And _try_ not to get yourself killed."

"You won't have to worry about _that_!" Terra sarcastically replied, crossing her arms. "I would be more worried about whatever it is you're sending in here to fight me." _'I'm not hopeless.'_

The silver-haired warrior stopped walking right as he reached the entrance to the observation room. He turned to look at Terra one last time with a curious expression on his face. "We'll see." He turned away from her and entered the room, followed by Zack, who gave her a thumbs up, then Cloud, who gave her an encouraging smile.

_'Whoa. Just like my dream.' _She shook her head a few times to clear away her sudden confusion. _'I'll think about that later.' _Suddenly, she remembered something, and her heart felt like it plummeted to her feet. "I don't have any weapons with me!" She gulped as the observation room window was slowly blended into the same color as the walls. She couldn't see any part of it anymore, except possibly the outline, if she looked hard enough. Then, it looked just like all the other random outlines in this spacious training room. "Were they even planning on giving me _anything_ to use?" Terra wiggled her fingers in front of her face and examined them. "These will have to do, I guess." Crouching down into her battle stance, she murmured. "Bring it on."

-End Flashback-

"Oh, my gawd! This is getting to be so exciting!" Yuffie's blue-gray orbs glowed with enthusiasm as she suddenly interrupted.

"Hey, brat! She was just getting to the best damn part!" Cid growled from across the table.

"Yuffie, it's rude to interrupt something like that," Tifa chided, crossing her arms over her well-endowed chest.

Terra laughed softly. She was secretly relieved to have the spotlight taken off of her, if only for a few moments. "No big deal, guys. It's fine."

"Sorry, Terra. I just had to let that out! Please, continue! I can't wait to hear about how you served everyone their ass on a platter, including _Sephiroth_!" Yuffie spit out Sephiroth's name as though it were the foulest word in existence.

Terra tilted her head to the side and frowned slightly, looking around at everyone. "You guys really hated Sephiroth, didn't you?"

From looking at each of their different expressions, no one seemed to know how to answer that question properly. Tifa noticed this as well, so she decided to voice her opinion. "I guess if I think about it, I didn't hate _him_ so much as I hated what he had _done_ to so many people. It's just...he took so many lives. And for his surviving victims? He destroyed any chance at a somewhat normal life for them." No one expected Tifa to have such a _nice_ reply to Terra's inquiry. Especially considering Sephiroth killed her father.

"What are you f--ing saying, Teef?" Cid shouted. "I _hated_ that bastard! And _that's_ putting it nicely."

"Well, Cid," Tifa countered. "It's been a little over two years since we've last seen Sephiroth. And since then, I've begun to realize that I feel a little bit sorry for him. I've had a lot of time to think about it, and I believe that we all chose to fight Sephiroth with the rage and hatred that we had built up inside ourselves because it was easier than facing the truth."

"What truth you sayin', Teef?" Barret asked.

Tifa sighed. "The truth that it wasn't Sephiroth who was doing all of those terrible things. It was _Jenova_." Cloud looked at Tifa with an unreadable expression. Tifa was a bit taken aback by his serious gaze, but she shrugged it off, deciding to continue. "She was controlling him like a puppet!"

Yuffie looked angry. "What about Wutai? Do you not remember the war my country fought against Shinra? Sephiroth was the leading general of that army. He killed so many of our people!"

The expression on Tifa's face softened, but she didn't change her mind. "Yuffie, I understand why you're upset, but you're almost _too_ upset to see that Sephiroth _had _to fight, just like your countrymen had to fight. He didn't have a choice. Your people killed some of Shinra's men, as well. Plus, that was before he went...berserk in Nibelheim. When he learned what he thought was the truth of his origin."

Yuffie huffed, choosing not to reply. The conference room was deadly quiet for the next few moments. No one wanted to be the one to break that awkward silence. Cloud was the one to eventually break it, however. "You know, if Jenova would have tried to control me, I wouldn't have stood a chance. I had a glimpse of the manipulative power she bestowed upon Sephiroth when we were traveling to defeat him, three years ago. If the power I felt from Sephiroth was anything compared to Jenova's power..." he trailed off.

"I believe I understand," Shelke added. "Jenova was comparable to a parasite. Living off of strong, powerful people to get her where she wanted to be. Lying and deceiving them. Making them believe that she loves and cares for them, when in all actuality, she could care less whether they live or die."

Nanaki nodded his furry head, "That would be highly logical."

"I understand, as well," Vincent's deep voice supplied. "When I transformed into Chaos, it was not the same, but I believe there were some similarities." Yuffie's head snapped in Vincent's direction.

"But Vinnie! Your thing with Chaos is _way_ different!" she blurted out.

"..." Vincent sighed and made no reply. Yuffie was enraged at this newly developing situation. She couldn't believe that people were beginning to side with _Sephiroth_, of all people!

Tifa smiled softly. "I'm glad to see that some of you feel the same way I do. If you would have asked me a few years ago, I would have had an opposite response, but now...well, you've all heard how I feel."

Terra looked around the conference room to see that the opinion was kind of divided. Most of them had regular, calm expressions on their faces, but a few of the others looked livid. She could tell that some of their opinions about Sephiroth may never change, but she was slightly relieved to see that Tifa had spoken up and made others agree. _'If only his life hadn't been taken away from him by that hateful bitch. I blame her for everything.'_

Tifa seemed to have noticed the slight schism, too. Barret, Cid, and Yuffie were the only people who seemed to be furious about the whole thing, though. "Barret, if you were put in the same situation as Cloud, or maybe Vincent, you would understand why we feel the way we do."

"This shit is unbelievable!" Barret shouted. "Sephiroth's a stupid, f--ing arrogant, hateful prick who was glad to be given a little more power by that freak of nature bitch, Jenova!"

Terra flinched at Barret's vulgarity. _'I can't believe he actually thinks that!...it seems as if he'll never change his opinion.'_

"I agree!" Cid howled. "If he was as strong as you are f--ing tellin' us, then he should've been able to resist Jenova!"

Cloud was getting angry. This was beginning to get ridiculous. He addressed Barret, Cid and Yuffie. "You guys! Why can't you understand?" Yuffie crossed her arms and didn't respond. Cid just looked as if he were about to skewer something with his spear, and Barret was wearing a similar, violent expression. Cloud shook his head, obviously annoyed.

Tifa looked as if she were about to cry. "I know this sounds silly! I never thought that I would ever defend him after he did all of those things. But we have to be understanding and see things from a different perspective!"

Yuffie just let out a enraged scream and slapped her hand on the table. "Can we just stop this conversation and have Terra continue her story...before it escalates any further?"

"Good idea, Yuffie," Tifa agreed with somewhat relieved expression.

When everyone looked over to Terra, expecting her to resume her story, they were surprised to see that she looked as if she were about to cry, as well, and she was hugging her knees to her chest. "Terra? You don't have to continue if you don't want to," Tifa assured her.

Terra blinked a few times, her eyes glossier than they had been a few moments ago. "Um, is it okay if I just give a quick end to the story?" She saw that a few faces were a little bit disappointed; they had been enjoying it so far. But Tifa nodded her head reassuringly.

"That's fine!"

-Flashback-

The outlines of the door-like and window-like frames began to vibrate, surprising Terra. She wouldn't let it scare her, though. _'I'm ready!' _All of a sudden, the frames all shot open, letting out armed soldiers. _'I have to fight these guys?' _There were about twenty soldiers closing in on her. She suddenly had an idea. Darting towards one of them, she hurled an uppercut to his stomach, which was shockingly hard. _'It feels like metal!' _As the soldier staggered back a few steps, she easily snatched the broadsword from his weak grasp. "Yes! Now I have a weapon!" Taking the swipe in stride, she brought the sword up and slashed at the man's chest. Terra's eyes bugged out as she saw what she had done to this man...no...this _robot_. The thing's chest was making crackling noises, and a few wires were poking out. "Sephiroth wants me to fight robots? So be it!" With one more swing, she beheaded the robot, causing it to fall backwards with a loud crashing sound.

The other robots circled around her. Now it looked like there were even more than before. A couple more seemed to have come from those frames while she was fighting the first robot. She pressed on, though. Newly acquired broadsword in hand, she dashed forward as three of them came at her at once. Kicking one in the face, slashing another's head off, and flip-kicking the other one in the stomach, she laughed at how easy this was for her. Taking the other two down with a single slash, she wondered why this was even called a try-out. She wasn't trying at all. Little did she know, however, that after she killed each robot, the surrounding robots would gather the data and knowledge of her tactics and performance, learning from each and every move. Terra discovered this as she went towards another one of them, aiming a strike at their head, but the robot quickly ducked out of the way. She wasn't expecting that at all, and was even more startled when the robot dealt a blow of its own against her arm. If she hadn't moved at all when she saw the blow coming, it probably would've chopped her arm off. Good thing she had such great reflexes.

The battle was getting tougher and tougher, the robots becoming harder and harder to beat. She couldn't keep using the same moves or the same tactics to defeat them because otherwise, the other robots would learn from it and understand how to defend themselves from it. "_Now_ I see why he wanted me to fight this things!" Terra gasped out between quick breaths. "This is almost impossible! More just keep coming, too!"

After what felt like five hours, there were only five robots left. These robots, however, had been around since the start of the try-out, so they knew every one of Terra's moves that she had used thus far. "Will this ever end!" she screamed as she tried to swing the sword at one of them, but missed. One of the robots came charging at her, punching her square in the face with its hard, metal fist, then it proceeded to roundhouse kick her in the gut, sending her flying backwards. "Ugh! That...hurt..." she muttered. Thoughts of her father, of Zack, and of Cloud suddenly rushed into her mind, and somehow, she managed to get up, fight the remaining five robots, and win. She honestly couldn't remember how she had done it, though, because at the time, she was blinded with the passion and willpower to make it into SOLDIER. She just remembered that the adrenaline really kicked in after she got up off of the floor and she had performed some amazing techniques that she had never done attempted in her whole life. It obviously worked.

"I'm...tired..." she gasped out before closing her eyes and falling backwards. She didn't even feel pain as her body crashed against the hard, cold, metal floor. _'Adrenaline's all used up now!...Crap.' _Terra just wanted to go to sleep now. She was so incredibly worn out from fighting those robot-men, and she also felt some sharp pains all around her body. While she was fighting, if she was hit by a kick, a punch, or even a slash of a sword, she would completely ignore the pain and continue sparring with the bots. Now, everything was catching up to her body.

"TERRA!!" she heard a panicked voice shout. She heard fast footsteps approaching, as well, but she didn't feel like opening her eyes to acknowledge them. After a few quick seconds, the footsteps finally reached her, and she felt one of the owners of the footsteps kneel down next to her and softly slap her face. "Terra, can you open your eyes for me?" The voice was familiar now. It sounded like Zack. She didn't want to worry him too much, he'd been a really good friend the last few days, so she tried as hard as she could to open her eyes for him, eventually succeeding. Upon opening her eyes, she was welcomed with three worried faces. Well, two, considering Sephiroth didn't look _that_ worried. He just looked..._surprised_.

"How'd I do?" she managed to breath out.

Zack chuckled, obviously relieved that she was okay. "You did...well, you did _fantastic_! I was worried at first because I fought those bots, too. They're tough stuff! I forget the scientific name for them that Hojo gave them, but I don't really care at this point. I'm just glad you're okay!"

Terra laughed softly, but stopped abruptly, clutching her hand to her stomach in pain. It hurt to laugh. "What'd you expect?"

Zack smiled at her, pride evident in his eyes. "I knew you could do it," he murmured.

Terra could see Cloud clearly, now, too. He was smiling down at her, as well. "Yeah, me too!"

"Thanks," she slowly closed her eyes again. "I think I'm gonna sleep now..."

"Oh, no you don't!" Zack commanded. "You have a very large bump on your head that needs to be taken care of. It looks pretty bad. If you fall asleep, Terra, you may not wake up!"

"Kay, just give potion me," she was beginning to not make much sense as she tried not to fall asleep.

Sephiroth kneeled down as well, pulling a potion out from one of the many hidden pockets in his black leather outfit. "Here, drink this." His arm reached over to hand the vial to her. "It will alleviate some of the pain."

As Terra lifted her arm up to grab the bottle, she missed terribly and ended up resting her hand against Sephiroth's forearm instead. _'Ooh, his arm is so lean. He has so much muscle...' _She left her arm there because she was too tired to move it another inch, but she was also enjoying the feel of his muscles underneath her fingers. _'What is wrong with me? Did one of those robots inject me with something?...'_

Sephiroth brought his other hand up, gently grabbing her arm and putting it back down on the floor. "I'll just do it." He slowly brought the vial down to her lips and tipped it slightly, letting a bit of the fluid slide into her mouth. After a few moments, he was apparently satisfied with the amount she had taken in, so he sharply pulled away and stood up. Letting out a sigh, he said, "Well, I never believed that you would actually be able to defeat those specially programmed robots on your first try. Especially considering your age and gender." Terra let out an annoyed huff at his last statement. "But you did, so it seems as if I have no choice but to grant your acceptance into SOLDIER." He looked at Zack. "Get her medical attention. She should rest for the day. She will have to endure strenuous training programs and endurance tests like all other members of this organization, so she'll need as much energy as possible."

Zack's jaw dropped. "So she did it?! Terra's made it into SOLDIER!?"

Sephiroth nodded slowly. "Terra will surely be able to keep up with the third class ranked soldiers, at least. That is where she will be put to start off with."

"So does that mean that she'll stay in _that_ rank forever?" Cloud queried, choosing not to add, "like me," at the end of the sentence.

Sephiroth was beginning to look bored again. "I suppose we shall have to wait and see." He turned to leave Area B. "I must leave now. I am late for a meeting with Hojo. I will check in on her progress from time to time. For if she does not perform up to par-"

"You won't have to worry about that!" Zack defended proudly. "Terra will do great! Did you not just see what she did in here?" Watching as Sephiroth left the premises, Zack let out a satisfied sigh and bent over to pick up Terra, who was still laying on the ground dazedly. "Let's get you to the infirmary."

Gazing up tiredly, Terra gave Zack and Cloud an appreciative smile. "Thank you. For believing in me, you guys..."

Cloud matched Zack's strides and he leaned over to ruffle Terra's auburn tresses. "No problem. We both knew you had it in you to make it into SOLDIER!"

Zack suddenly remembered something. "Oh, and Terra? Sephiroth's been mad at me because last week, I invited a bunch of party people and guests into the building to surprise Sephiroth for his birthday. There were a few clowns there, too," he chuckled. "Let's just say that Sephiroth was not expecting to run into one of those clowns on his way out of the shower room. And Sephiroth...he hates surprises..."

"I'd be pretty mad, too," Terra laughed softly before closing her eyes and losing consciousness.

--

"It's going to be fine, Terra," the always calm voice of Cloud tried to convince Terra. She was pacing around in her dorm room, hands in her hair, with a panicked expression on her face. "Just calm down!"

Terra stopped suddenly and looked Cloud dead in the eye. "Calm down? How can I be calm on a day like today!?..." she was freaking out and began mumbling to herself unintelligibly.

Cloud sighed. "Most people would be thrilled to be in the position you're in now. No...they would actually be _happy_." Terra was now biting her finger nails compulsively. "You know you'll do fine."

The next phase in Terra's panic mode was to ramble, so ramble she did. "How can you be so sure? I'm not even sure why they promoted me a couple months ago, I mean, really! First Class? Me? And today I'm supposed to go out on my this _major_ mission with Zack and Sephiroth and a few other First Class soldiers who are _obviously_ more experienced and talented than I am!?" she dramatically sighed. "How do I get myself into these situations?!"

Throughout Terra's ramblings, Cloud's friendly features were slowly contorted into something resembling desperation, and his mako blue eyes lost a bit of their twinkle. He slapped his hand to his forehead and began to shake his head, not believing what he was hearing. "You honestly don't think you'll do okay? Come on! Snap out of it!" Cloud was beginning to get slightly angry. If he was in her position, he would be ecstatic. He really wished he could have made it to First Class, but promotions in SOLDIER were almost unheard of. When they place you in a rank that they believe is meant for you, that is where you will stay. "I would do anything for a shot at what you have right now! I've been here for almost two years, and you...you've only been here for close to half a year! How can someone who excels that quickly have such little confidence in herself! You need to take a long look in the mirror and see what everybody else sees." Cloud was inching closer to her while he was talking, and now he was face to face with her. He put his hands on both of her shoulders and squeezed gently. "And that is a strong young woman who can do anything she sets her mind to."

'_Wow. I've never heard him say anything like this before...I feel kinda bad now! I shouldn't have been so stupid about this whole thing. I really am lucky to have a shot like this.' _Terra's eyes were starting to water with all the many emotions she was feeling at once. "Thanks, Cumulus! You're always there for me when I need you," she sniffled, "I don't know how I could've gotten through these last few months without you and Zack to help me through it..." Terra tried her best to wipe the tears that were threatening to fall from her eyes.

Cloud looked oddly uncomfortable. _'Maybe he doesn't like to see girls cry?' _Not knowing what else to do, he took one more step closer to her and embraced her in a comforting and heartfelt hug. "I don't think you realize how fun you've made everyone's life around here..." he murmured loud enough for her to hear. Pulling away, giggling, Terra wiped the tears from her eyes one last time and gave Cloud a genuine smile. "Now go meet up with Zack. You don't want them to leave without you." Terra nodded and turned to leave. "Oh, and Terra?" She stopped at the door and turned her head to face him, a curious expression on her face. "Good luck."

-End Flashback-

Terra let out a huge gust of air, not really wanting to finish the story. But she had to. They needed to understand what was going on. _'I need to warn them!' _Plus, Cloud knew most of the story up until this point. He had a right, as her old friend, to understand what really happened. "So, I met up with Zack and Sephiroth and a two other soldiers and we left for our mission."

Nanaki interrupted, "What did the mission entail?"

Terra looked as if she was deep in thought. "Now that I think about it, no one was expecting the mission to really be _that_ major. We were just out inspecting the woods area outside of Junon because there had been rumors of vicious beasts, larger and more dangerous than ever before, lurking in that territory. Our job was to dispose of them...only," her gaze dropped to the table, "something went terribly wrong."

"What happened?" Tifa implored.

Terra continued, but her voice had become somewhat shaky. "When we got to our destination, we were surprised at first because there wasn't any evidence, scent, or even trail of the beasts ever having been there. I remember that Sephiroth was getting pretty angry and Zack wondered if the distress call had been some kind of a joke...but we found out soon enough that it wasn't a joke, at all.

"As we ventured further into the woods, I distinctly remember the disturbing feeling in my gut that we were being watched. After we made it into the middle of the woods, I was positive that something was off. Sephiroth sensed it too, and he held his arm out in front of us, signaling us to stop. Before we knew it, a pack of those..._monsters _were circled around us. They were bigger than any monster I have ever seen before in my life, save for any summons. Gray fur, yellow fangs, black and beady eyes...they were hideous."

"So what did you guys do? You were surrounded!" Yuffie cut in.

"What else could we do except defend ourselves? Those beasts had bloodlust in their eyes like nothing I've ever seen before, so we knew that if we tried to escape rather than fight, they would surely come after us and attack anyway. We all pulled our weapons out, ready to take them down. The beasts were obviously smarter than normal monsters, as well, because the moment we unsheathed our weapons was the moment they chose to strike. They were brutal and savage on the battlefield, using their fingerlike claws and their enlarged fangs as their own personal weapons of choice. We did what we could to take most of them down...but they just kept coming. Zack and I knew a lost hope when we saw one, so we tried to tell Sephiroth that we needed to retreat; we had already lost the other two soldiers to the foul creatures..." Terra shook her head a few times. "He wouldn't listen. If our general stayed to fight, then we had to stay and fight! After a while of intense fighting, Sephiroth and Zack were a little further away from me. They were taking on at least ten or fifteen of the gigantic fiends. I, on the other hand, was making my way deeper and deeper into the woods as I was fighting. I didn't realize it at first; I was caught up in trying to dispose of the beasts that were pursuing me..." she shuddered. "Before I knew it, I was on the ground, broken and bleeding. I couldn't take on those things anymore, and they knew it, too. Feeling that death was upon me, I closed my eyes, ready to finally see my parents again. Before the beasts performed their final strike, a man's voice rang out from deeper in the woods. He had a nasally voice and a laugh that unsettled my stomach. I didn't have the strength to open my eyes to see who it was and what he was doing, but I soon figured out the latter when I suddenly heard him screech at the monsters to back away from me. It didn't make sense. I couldn't believe that one man could get rid of monsters by _ordering_ them to go away!"

"Who was it that saved you?" Cloud asked.

Terra gave a hard laugh. "He didn't save me. I would have rather stayed where I was and _died_ before I could let him even touch me!"

"And that person was...?" Yuffie chipped in.

Terra ignored the questions. "He brought me to his home,...or at least I _think _it was his home; it wasn't his lab in the Shinra building. He honestly succeeded in ruining my life. I had to endure vigorous tests and was injected with all sorts of serums. All because he wanted to try out a new _specimen_."

"_Hojo_," Vincent growled, his crimson eyes full of an intense emotion that Terra couldn't quite place.

She nodded sadly. "The torture he was inflicting on me was so intense, at one point, that I think I retreated into my own mind, losing my state of actual consciousness...for a few months. Maybe years. I was neither in or out of consciousness so it was hard to get a sense of time when I was there."

"What did he want with you?" Tifa pondered.

"I still don't really know why he chose me to be his guinea pig. I...honestly would have rather _died_..." she looked around at all of their faces to see sympathy and sorrow in their eyes. She couldn't stop a few tears from escaping. It was hard reliving her own personal nightmare. _'I don't want their sympathy. That's not why I'm telling them this!' _She wiped her eyes. "Look, guys, don't feel sorry for me, okay? What's done is done. There's nothing I can do about it now! Plus, that's not even the thing that I really needed to tell you...no..._warn _you about!"

"Just tell us!" Cid barked. He was apparently still grumpy from the earlier argument about Sephiroth.

Terra flushed, but continued. "Well, I picked up on a few things when I was awake, there with Hojo. He loved talking to himself, and sometimes, he would even brag to me about his various experiments. That's how I kept some knowledge of what was going on in the outside world. It was heartbreaking to hear him prattle on about you and Zack, though..." she looked at Cloud solemnly. "He was convinced he had finally made Sephiroth clones, or something like that. Anyway, the longer I was there with Hojo, the more distracted he became. He was working on so many things at the same time, he didn't seem to care to poke and prod me as much anymore. Not that I wasn't thankful, though. When the meteor crisis came into play, he had no more time for me, at all. He said he was going back to Midgar to sort a few things out. I never saw him again. Unfortunately, when he departed, I was left with his idiotic apprentice, Filix. I don't understand why Filix even worked his way up to that point with Hojo. He wasn't intelligent at all, and he was a suck-up." She rolled her eyes. "But after Hojo left, things started to change. He was starting something that he told himself, _out loud_, was sure to make Hojo proud. And he kept experimenting on me, as well, although I don't believe he knew what he was doing. It wasn't until well after the Deepground incident that I finally understood the other experiment he was trying to do..." She took a shaky breath. "You guys are never going to believe me...but Filix is trying to revive Jenova and Sephiroth. In fact, I believe that he is almost finished in the process of the revival of Sephiroth. Or he was at the time of my escape. At this point, it could be much further along!" She looked around her pleadingly, hoping to all gods that the people in this room would somehow take her word for the truth. What she saw was shock, confusion, and anger in their faces.

_'Uh oh.'_

* * *

Sorry if Cloud kinda seemed OOC in the flashback. I figured he was a little different before he was put through all that crap. He wasn't quite emo yet! XD

I'm dying to know how I'm doing with this! I know the storyline's a little iffy but it'll get better, I promise!! So please REVIEW!!

oh and thanks for reading!

koalababay


	6. Whispers in the Dark

just one thing i have to say: sorry i haven't updated till now!! forgive me? :3

**Disclaimer**: I still don't own FFVII! sigh how sad…

* * *

Chapter 6: Whispers in the Dark

--

It was silent enough to hear a pin drop. No one moved. No one said anything. No one _knew_ what to say. Terra was sure this was the part where she would be asked to leave...

--

_'...What?' _

Cloud blinked rapidly. He wouldn't accept that Sephiroth was to be revived yet again for someone else's evil intentions. Why must the famous general always be used as a puppet for someone else? Haven't they had to fight him enough times already? "Impossible," he muttered. "Are you sure?"

"I'm positive!" Terra sheepishly cast her eyes downward. "And I understand if you don't believe me. I know it's a little farfetched. I just wanted to tell you...that way maybe you could possibly help me fight Filix and Jenova!"

"And Sephiroth!" Yuffie interjected, breaking out of her own reverie by pumping her fist into the air.

"That's the thing..." Terra laughed nervously. "I'm not planning on fighting Sephiroth at all..."

"And why da hell not?!" Barret hollered. "We've had to fight him so many times already, and we've won each time! What's one more fight?"

"Exactly!" Terra pointed at Barret. "Exactly why you shouldn't fight him this time! Sephiroth deserves to finally know the truth about his origin. I think that if I...if _we_ can get the chance to just speak to him for a minute, maybe he'd hear us out..."

Vincent's eyebrows shot up underneath his dark bangs; he was apparently in thought. "I believe that Lucrecia would be able to rest knowing that her son had one more chance...but this will be hard to accomplish."

"We'll just have to make him listen!" Tifa nodded her head and smiled happily. Quickly glancing at Terra, she added, "But if he doesn't believe us, then you _do_ realize that we will have to fight him to protect ourselves and our planet, _right_?" she added with a slight frown.

"I understand," Terra nodded. "But you guys'll help me?" This was not what she was assuming would happen. She was anticipating being kicked out, or maybe even sparring again. It was never in her game plan for them to believe her right away.

"I don' wanna help. You guys do whatever da hell you want," Barret stood up, looking at each and every one of them as though they were in line to jump off of a very steep cliff into raging waters below. "I'm outta here..." Shaking his head and muttering to himself, he left the conference room with a loud _boom_ as the door slammed shut.

"Barret!" Tifa stood up to run after him, but Cloud grabbed her wrist, giving her a firm look that clearly said, _"Just let him go."_

Terra closed her eyes and nodded, expecting something like _that_ to happen.

Yuffie pounded her forehead on the table with an exasperated, and unladylike, snort. Then, she stood up and put her hand on her hip: the signature Yuffie stance. "I _so_ do not want to be a part of this!" She turned to follow Barret.

"Yuffie, please don't go!" Tifa broke free of Cloud's grip and sprinted over to where Yuffie was leaving."How can you be so sure that what she's saying is true, Teef?" She waved her arm in Terra's direction, causing Terra to flinch slightly. "And even if it is true, I have no doubt in my mind that Sephiroth will be as hateful and cruel as he was the last time, and the time before that. He won't even give you the chance to talk to him before he slice and dices you with his giant ass sword! _And_ are you all forgetting that he killed Aerith?" She was shrieking frantically at that point. Cloud visibly recoiled when Yuffie mentioned Aerith. _'Oh, I didn't mean to bring that pain back to him...damnit, Yuffie, you're an idiot...' _she mentally chastised herself.

Yuffie took a deep, calming breath before continuing. "Look, I don't want to see any of you get hurt, so I hope to all gods that you don't go through with this." Yuffie sneaked at quick peek at Vincent and instantly wished that she hadn't. His eyes were not filled with hate, or anger, or even sadness. They were filled with an emotion that Yuffie hated to see reflected in those red orbs of his: disappointment. She put her hand on her forehead and shook her head violently. "I'm sorry, guys. I can't do this."

"Yuffie, please just stay and think it over for awhile. We're not doing anything right now, anyway. Terra hasn't even filled us in on the major locations and information that we need to track this Filix guy down!" Tifa pleaded with Yuffie, like a mother would to her child, or an older sister to a younger sister. Terra nodded in agreement.

Cid gave a loud grumble and stood up, as well. "I'm not so goddamn sure about this. You guys can stay on my airship for the night, I s'pose. I'm goin' to bed. I'm f--ing tired! Lemme sleep on this and I'll see if I wanna go through with this shit come tomorrow mornin'!" He walked over to the door, but turned around quickly before exiting. "I ain't promisin' anything, though!" Cid barked before turning around one final time to go to his room.

Yuffie let out a huge sigh. "Okay, Teef. I'll stay the night, but that's all! Okay? If I don't change my mind by tomorrow morning, then..." Yuffie tapped her fingers across her chin, at a loss as to what to say next. After a few seconds, however, her eyes brightened with what appeared to be a new plan, and she stopped tapping her chin. "Then I'm going back to Wutai, I guess."

Tifa's stance was noticeably relaxed from earlier and she nodded her head in relief. _'Like she'd ever actually go back to her hometown...yeah _right_.' _

Shelke finally spoke up, after remaining silent throughout the entire course of the conversation. "But will Lord Godo be expecting you to return to Wutai at all?"

Yuffie squeezed her eyes shut and bit her lip in apparent frustration before bursting out, "Well, Godo and I don't talk anymore, so how am I supposed to know that, Shelke!?" Shelke's eyes widened at Yuffie's sudden exclamation.

"I apologize," Shelke responded. "I just assumed that you have maintained some form of contact with your father throughout these last few years."

"Well..." Yuffie trailed off, folding her arms over her chest in an attempt to shield herself from their inevitable interrogation.

"Wait, hold on a second, Yuffie!" Tifa had a look of confusion mixed with slight disapproval. "When was the last time you talked to Godo?"

Yuffie giggled nervously. _'Saw that one coming...' _"Umm..." she started to mess with her hair to delay as much time as possible. Then, she sat back down on a chair a few feet away from the conference table.

"Answer the question, Yuffie," Vincent commanded. He was still sitting down, but he looked like he was just about ready to stand up and leave the room if the situation called for it.

"Yes, please, Yuffie," Nanaki urged calmly. "We would all appreciate to hear what you have to say."

Glancing at Vincent caused Yuffie to flinch, but after looking at Red, she regained her nerve to speak. "Okay, guys, chill! I talked to him on the phone right after the fight with those Deepground buffoons," she shrugged. "He just wanted to know if the gil I was making in my position as the espionage and intelligence director was doubled due to the crisis. The WRO worked harder than ever during that time and the old fart figured that I'd get more pay or something because of that..."

Tifa had a look on her face that read: _"So what?"_

Yuffie noticed this and continued, "He wanted to know because then he could rope me into feeling guilty about the ridiculous state of Wutai, and I'd feel _obligated_ to return some of my earnings as a way to show how much I care about my home and the people there." She groaned. "The only problem is, Godo would probably just use the money to increase more tourism and build more stupid attractions. He would never actually use it for the common good of the people there. He's too selfish." Yuffie threw her arms in the air and slapped them down on her thighs harshly. "And that's why I don't care to even bother speaking to him anymore. It's pointless," she finished. "Happy now?" She looked around at everyone's surprised faces, expecting to see understanding and satisfaction in their eyes.

Tifa's mouth opened and closed several times, as though she was trying to say something in reply to Yuffie's explanation, but couldn't find the words. It was useless. Tifa just looked like a fish out of water. No one else stood up to comfort her either, except Nanaki, who trotted over to rest his head on her knees. That was his own special way of consoling her.

_'You've always been there for me, Fuzzy...' _Memories of when AVALANCHE was traveling together to save the world from the ominous meteor came surged back to Yuffie's mind. She remembered that she could always count on Nanaki to be the silent presence she needed most when things started to become too much to bear.

"Thanks, Red," Yuffie whispered into his furry ear, scratching the top of his head. The rush of air from her breath caused his ear to twitch slightly. She sighed. Nobody else had made any move to say anything to Yuffie. "_Okay_, I'm going to bed, guys. Talk to you in the morning." She got up from her seat and left the room. Nanaki followed her out, as well, his fiery tail swinging from side to side. As Yuffie left the room, all she could think was, _'That was awkward...at least they kind of get it now...'_

The door closed with a soft click, a major contrast to Barret's departure. The click seemed to send an electric shock through Tifa, and she shook her head a few times before letting out a disheartened moan. "...Why couldn't I say anything to her?" she asked herself out loud. Putting her hands on her head and shaking it once more, she asked Cloud, "Did you have any idea that was why she has avoided returning to Wutai?"

Cloud cleared his throat with hesitance. "Um...I had no clue."

"Should I go talk to her? I mean, I really should've said something, I just didn't know what to do or say!" Tifa cried.

"Tifa, none of us knew. It's not your fault," Cloud tried to comfort her. "Plus, it's Yuffie," he shrugged. "She's tough. She doesn't call herself _The Great Ninja Yuffie_ for nothing."

Tifa sighed. "I guess you're probably right. I'll just talk to her in the morning." Looking around at Cloud, Terra, and Shelke, Tifa noticed something. "Where's Vincent?'

"You didn't see him leave a few moments after Yuffie did?" Terra asked.

"...No...?"

"Perhaps that was when you were...what you like to call: _'freaking out'_?" Shelke monotonously replied. "You must not have noticed him leave."

"Oh, I guess I didn't. I don't blame him, really. It's been a long day. I'm sure he's just tired," Tifa sighed and shook her head yet again.

"Yeah, we all are." Cloud stood up and stretched. "I think we should all go to bed, too." He turned to Terra. "I'll show you a spare room that you can sleep in for the night. Cid and Shera added more modifications to this airship, and one of those included creating more bedrooms for us." He chuckled. "We each have our own room for whenever...or if ever a problem should arise and we would need to use the airship again."

"Sounds great," Terra shyly smiled.

* * *

Tossing and turning on top of her sheets over and over, Yuffie still couldn't find a comfortable position. _'Gawd it's so hot in here! Can't Cid turn on the frickin air conditioner?'_ She swung her legs over the side of the bed and just sat there for a few minutes, wiping the cold sweat off her forehead, debating on what she should do next. _'I can't fall asleep right now...maybe I should just take a walk around the airship or something...'_ Nodding her head decisively, she stood up and left her room, bare feet lightly gliding across the wood floor.

* * *

'_This is kinda cozy...' _Terra thought to herself after Cloud had left her alone to 'her' room. There was a single bed in the corner of the room, with a window next to it, looking out to the vast and dark skies beyond it. She also had her own bathroom, which she'd never been blessed with before. She'd become accustomed to sharing her bathrooms with at least one other person, and it never bothered her. Terra wasn't one to spend an excess amount of time in the shower or bath; give her five minutes and she would be showered, dressed, and ready to go. It was necessary to learn how to be quick and ready at a moment's notice when you were a part of SOLDIER.

She sat down on her bed, crossing her legs and bunching the soft, linen sheets around them. Angling her body towards the window and gazing outside, she couldn't seem to take her mind off of something that had been bothering her since earlier that day. The story she had to tell earlier brought back a lot of memories. Some painful, some joyous, and some with unanswered questions along with it. Everyone else had their chance to ask questions and be enlightened with understanding and knowledge. Not her. She still had a question or two that she needed to be sure about. She's had to carry these painful and unanswered questions as burdens for long enough. She knew that she wouldn't be able to fall asleep knowing that the person who can answer her questions is in the very same airship as her right now.

Pushing her covers aside and standing up, she knew what she had to do. _'I'm sure he'll tell me if I just ask...'_

* * *

Cracking open the door leading out to the airship's deck, Yuffie stepped through, taking in a deep and refreshing breath of the crisp night air. _'This feels much better!' _Yuffie could already feel her temperature going back to normal. She spun around a few times, with her arms reaching skyward, to try to rid herself of a bit of her excess energy, and then she walked over to the side of the deck to grasp the railing. Leaning back, while still holding on to the railing, Yuffie directed her gaze upward.

_'There sure are a lot of stars out tonight...' _

Yuffie was in awe at how beautiful the whole image truly was. She never had time to just stop and appreciate the wonder and awe of the never-ending sky. At least, not anymore, since she's always so busy helping out at Tifa's bar nowadays. Tonight, the truth was hitting her hard: she missed Wutai. She missed her father's annoying servants of the Pagoda, yet still she called Staniv, Gorky, Shake, and Chekhov her friends. She missed the old-fashioned Wutains who wore their kimonos and battle garb with honor. But most of all, she missed climbing Da Chao and looking at the endless sky with its multitude of stars on nights like this. It made her think of her mother...and how together, on Da Chao, they would attempt to count all the stars they could see...

...together, they always played games whenever Yuffie's boundless energy needed taming...

...it was always the three of them: her mother, her father, and her. She believed that her mother and father made the perfect testament to true love...they were always together, laughing, smiling, touching...

...Yuffie loved her mother for always defended her when she got into trouble, which seemed to happen a lot...

...but then the Wutai War came, and it scared Yuffie beyond belief...

...one night will always stand apart from the rest in her memory...it was the night her mother died...Yuffie had just been ushered into a secret chamber in the Pagoda to hide from Shinra, and her mother told her..._ordered_ her to stay there no matter what. Yuffie, being _Yuffie_, followed after a few moments, unbeknownst to her mother. Unaware that she was steadily trudging along into the battlefield, Yuffie kept her mother within her eyesight. But she was still too slow; she couldn't catch up. _'Wait up, Mommy!' _She started to sprint to get to where her mother was, and when she finally got there, what she saw was nothing short of pure pandemonium. There were bodies everywhere; some dead, some barely alive. Others were still fighting for their lives. In the midst of it all, stood her mother, taking down soldier after soldier with precision and ease. It didn't matter that she was outnumbered; she had skill on her side. But Yuffie was still worried for her mother. "MOMMY!!" she remembered screaming to get her mother's attention. When her mother looked over at her, Yuffie expected to see relief, love and joy at seeing her precious daughter. Instead, Yuffie saw fear, shock and panic in her mother's eyes. Not understanding this odd reaction, Yuffie slowly shuffled closer to her mother so they could get out of this chaos together. "Mommy?..."

"Yuffie, no! Go back! Hide!" her mother had shrieked. The very last soldier that she was fighting realized this momentary weakness and used it to his advantage. All Yuffie could remember is seeing her mother several feet away, facing her, but then a long, sharp object suddenly jutted out of her mother's chest. Gasping for air, her mother stumbled forward and landed face-down on the ground. Then, Yuffie saw a pool of red liquid surrounding her mother. Finally realizing what had happened, Yuffie bounded over to where her mother was lying motionless. She kneeled down and tried to rouse her mother back to consciousness by poking and shaking her, all the while screaming uncontrollably. Suddenly, Yuffie realized that the soldier that had killed her mother was still standing a few feet away. He had not moved since he had performed the final strike. Gazing into his cold, icy blue eyes made Yuffie want to scream even louder. For her mother, for her people, for anyone this evil man may have killed with that long sword of his.

"I hate you!" Yuffie screeched at the soldier, her hands balling into fists in the dirt.

The soldier's long, silvery hair was caught by the light breeze, and it blew in front of his face. He finally moved by turning his head to the side, so his hair would blow the other way, out of his face. Then, he sheathed his long, deadly blade. "I get that a lot," he responded, low and calm.

Looking at Yuffie, he slowly took a few steps closer to where she was kneeling. Stopping a foot or two away from her, he squatted down so he was at eyelevel with her. "She was a worthy opponent," he slowly murmured. Standing up again, he added, "Had I known she was distracted by you, I would not have taken that opening."

"SHUT UP!! Just SHUT UP and LEAVE US ALONE!!" Yuffie screeched herself hoarse, with tears freely streaming down her cheeks. "Mommy..." she nestled her face into her mother's neck. Yuffie was so distraught that she was swept into a world of nothingness, silence, and death. No one would be there to climb up Da Chao with her anymore. No one would defend her when she got in trouble for beating up those stupid boys who always bothered her. No one would hold her hand and whisper sweet, calming words to her as she tried to forget about her nightmares. Paying no attention to her surroundings, Yuffie did not see the silver-haired warrior depart, or her father arrive at the horrific scene a few moments later.

_'I'll never forget the look on Godo's face...he was never the same after that...' _Yuffie's vision was now blurred by the tears pouring down her cheeks, as if to match the tears from her memory. _'I think he'll always sort of blame me for what happened...if I hadn't distracted Mom, Sephiroth wouldn't have had the chance to kill her...'_ Sniffling and hiccoughing continuously, Yuffie tried to regain her composure. She wiped her eyes with unneeded force and she took a deep, yet shaky breath, to try to calm herself down a little bit. _'I hate who Dad's become...I really miss the way he used to be...but I guess it's probably my fault he's like that, anyway.' _Her last thought brought a fresh wave of tears to the surface, pooling over her eyes and flowing down her face when she closed her eyes. Yuffie never allowed herself to cry like this. Why was it that _now_, of all times, she couldn't control herself?

"...Yuffie?" she heard a surprised voice call, followed by a loud creak of the door to the deck.

Startled, Yuffie gasped when she heard the voice break through her thoughts and tears. She wasn't expecting anyone else to be awake, let alone out here where she was. _'I hope I didn't wake anyone up...'_ Turning around slowly, her eyes widened when she saw who the voice belonged to.

* * *

The bed squeaked loudly as Cloud settled onto the edge of it. He just sat there, still fully clothed, deep in thought. He sighed heavily and buried his face into his hands. He had a throbbing headache after everything that had happened that day. Fighting, recovering memories, discussing, and more fighting: it was enough to give a stuffed animal a migraine. He groaned again and started to massage his temples to try to lessen some of the pain. His head suddenly jolted up when he heard two, very delicate knocks on his door. _'Who could that be?' _He rose from the bed and strode over to the door to answer it.

Upon opening the door, he was greeted with the shy and embarrassed face of Terra. "I'm so sorry for bothering you so late, Cloud."

Cloud scratched the back of his head in disarray. "...It's no problem, Terra." He motioned for her to come inside his room. He shut the door and turned to face her. "What's going on?" He crossed his arms over his chest, waiting for her to explain.

"Well, you see..." Terra began. She was fidgeting nervously. "I...uh...I wanted to ask you a question..." She finally made eye contact with Cloud, which gave her the courage to continue. "About what happened when I was in Hojo's captivity."

"What do you mean?" Cloud seemed puzzled.

"You know how I told you that Hojo boasted about some of the goings-on of the planet while I was forced to stay there with him?" Cloud nodded. "Some of the things he said...they just didn't make sense to me!" Terra was getting frustrated all over again. "It made me so mad that he could talk..._joke_ about how you and Zack became his guinea pigs! But I don't see how that could happen! I thought you took down Sephiroth? How could you get captured by Shinra?" Terra started to pace around Cloud's room; she was lost in her thoughts, voicing all questions that came to mind. "But then how is it that Sephiroth returned that first time? _And_ Hojo said that Sephiroth had gutted you with his Masamune, yet you still managed to take him down!? But you and Zack were somehow forced into those mako chambers? _And_, if you and Zack escaped, how is it that Zack died...and not..." she trailed off, putting her hand over her mouth in shame. "Cloud, I am _so_ sorry. I shouldn't be bothering you with this. _Especially_ now!" Terra approached the door to leave. After taking only two steps, Terra felt Cloud's hand come down on her shoulder.

"Don't go," he murmured. "I can try my best to explain."

Terra shook her head. "No, you don't have to. I have no right to burden you with my unanswered questions. If I've gone this long not understanding, then I think I can manage without knowing at all."

"Really, it's fine," Cloud assured her. "I just don't know where to begin." He grabbed her arm and directed her towards his bed so they could both sit down, rather than stand. Facing Terra, Cloud cleared his throat. "You know that the mission to the Nibelheim reactor was the mission that started Sephiroth's insanity, right?" Terra nodded her head slowly. "So after he learned what he _thought_ was the truth of his origin, he barricaded himself with books in the Shinra mansion's library, trying to learn even more about himself and the Jenova project. Of course, everything he read about was false. His head was filled with lies. But he didn't know that. Neither did we at that time," Cloud sighed. "Anyway, the second mission to the reactor is where all your questions seem to be directed at." Terra gave a nervous smile and nodded again.

"I was just a grunt in that mission; Zack and Sephiroth were the First Class soldiers in the reactor. I ran up there because I was trying to find Zack. Sephiroth had just discovered something vital in his research and it set him off. He was so angry that he set the whole town of Nibelheim on fire, killing many innocent people along with it. When I got up to the reactor, something felt off. Whatever it was, I knew something had gone even _more_ terribly wrong," he shuddered. "When I walked inside the reactor, the first thing I saw was Tifa, lying motionless on the floor. There was blood surrounding her. I was so scared for her life; it looked like she wasn't going to make it."

Terra gasped. _'Oh, that's right. Tifa was their tour guide...I can't believe Sephiroth did that to her. She didn't even do anything to deserve that...'_

"All I had on me was a potion," Cloud continued, "So I forced it down her throat, which didn't seem to do much, though I did hear her mumble something about our old promise..."

'_Promise?' _Terra wondered.

"My hope was completely lost at that point, and I still hadn't found Zack or Sephiroth. Leaving Tifa there for the time-being, I walked up the metal staircase to Jenova's chamber. When I got in there, I saw Zack injured and unconscious. Looking up, I saw that Sephiroth was in some kind of trance while he was talking to his 'mother,' Jenova." Cloud's hands started to shake. "I was so furious at what he had done. He put my whole hometown up in flames, he hurt Tifa, and he hurt Zack. Those were the only things that mattered to me at that time, so it was enough to send me over the edge." He sent his penetrating gaze into Terra's timid one. "I know you asked me how I beat Sephiroth, but I really don't know. All I remember feeling is the adrenaline. When Sephiroth speared his Masamune through my stomach, it didn't faze me. It was more of a dull nuisance than an excruciating pain. Somehow, I managed to fight him far enough into the reactor that when I dealt my final blow, he was forced to fall into an endless abyss of mako."

Terra's jaw dropped. "Oh my..."

Cloud gave a chagrinned smirk. "My adrenaline ran out after that, so naturally, I blacked out. The next thing I remember is waking up in a chamber of mako. Zack was in one just like mine, right next to me. I had no idea where I was at that time. Nothing made sense. The mako was really messing up my mind..."

"How did you get out?" Terra interrupted.

Cloud sighed again. "The only way I can answer that is with one word: Zack." Terra tilted her head to the side in confusion. "My mind was so foggy from the mako that none of my memories are clear. All I know is that Zack got us out somehow, and we made it all the way to the outskirts of Midgar before SOLDIER caught up to us..."

"Don't tell me that they..." Terra began.

Cloud looked at her sadly. "They were sent by Shinra to find us and bring us back. _Dead_ or alive. At that point all that really mattered to them was getting us out of their way. We had been exposed to too many of their secrets, and according to them, that constitutes immediate extermination."

"But you were in no condition to fight!" Terra interrupted.

Cloud grimaced. "You're right. I wasn't. I didn't even know where I was at that point. I would've been no help to Zack whatsoever."

"Did Zack take them on by himself?" Terra asked quietly.

Cloud nodded grimly. "There were so many bodies of the soldiers scattered everywhere by the time that I came to. He must've fought so hard..."

Terra sniffed softly. "Cloud, I'm so sorry you had to witness that. I won't ask any more of you. I am being so insensitive to you right now and I apologize!" Terra sprang up from the bed quickly and turned to leave Cloud's room.

Cloud got up as well. "Wait, Terra." Terra slowly turned around to face him again. "Can I ask you one question?"

Terra smiled gently with a nod. "Of course."

Cloud scratched the back of his head again. "Well, when we were watching the news, it said that you started from Nibelheim." Terra nodded. "Edge was apparently your final destination."

"Right..." Terra's brows were furrowed in confusion.

"I was wondering, how did you get here so fast?" Cloud finished.

"Oh...!" Terra's eyes widened considerably, as though she both surprised and embarrassed by his query. "Well..."

They were both startled when a soft rapping came from outside Cloud's door. Cloud looked bewildered again. _'Who else could be up this late?' _he wondered. His boots silently padded across the floor as he reached for the door.

--

'_What am I doing?' _the dark-haired martial artist thought bitterly to herself after she knocked quietly on Cloud's door. She sighed heavily. _'I just want to talk to Cloud. Today's been quite…interesting, and-'_

"Tifa?" Cloud's face appeared when he cracked his door open. When he saw Tifa's facial expression, his own expression morphed into one of surprise and worry. "What's wrong? Are you alright?"

Tifa's previous frown disappeared instantly upon seeing Cloud's concerned face. She gave a small smile. "Yeah, everything's fine. I was actually coming to see how _you_ were." She shrugged. "I figured maybe we could just talk. I know it's late, but…" she trailed off when Cloud opened his door completely. Next to Cloud's bed stood Terra, arms crossed, and looking incredibly uncomfortable in this newly developed situation. "U-um…" Tifa stuttered, at a loss for words. _'I knew it…' _

"I hope I'm not interrupting something?"

Cloud scratched the back of his spiky hair in confusion. "No…? Terra and I were just-"

"I was just leaving!" Terra cut in quickly. She strode past Cloud and Tifa, casting each of them a knowing smile. "I'll leave you two alone."

Tifa, not understanding the meaning behind Terra's departure, apologized profusely to Cloud after Terra had taken her leave. "I didn't mean to intrude between you and Terra's time together! Please-I mean, I can leave you alone if you want…"

Cloud gave Tifa a small smirk. "Tifa, it's fine. You didn't interrupt anything. Terra and I were just talking."

Tifa wrapped her arms around her torso in embarrassment. "…Okay."

Cloud, noticing her discomfort, rested his hand on her shoulder, giving it a light squeeze. "So what did you want to talk about?" He dropped his hand back to his side.

"Well, I was just making sure that you were okay. A lot happened today and it would be natural for anyone to feel a little overwhelmed."

Letting out a heavy sigh, Cloud nodded. "You're right. But _overwhelmed_ would be putting it lightly."

Now it was Tifa's turn to do the comforting. She grabbed one of Cloud's hands with both of hers and rubbed them together in an embracing way. Cloud blushed slightly at this sudden contact.

"You thought Terra was dead." It was more of a statement than a question. That's not the only question Tifa had in mind, however. Something more along the lines of, _"Is there something going on between you and Terra?"_ seemed more appropriate to her, but she knew it was irrelevant and hardly her business.

"Yeah. It seems like everybody's coming back from the dead now," he mumbled sarcastically. "It makes you wonder if all the people that we thought were dead…are still out there somewhere." He gazed deep into her mahogany orbs.

Tifa dropped her hands from the embrace and cleared her throat uneasily. Black spiky hair and a beautiful flowergirl came rushing to mind. She knew who he was thinking about. And there was no way that they were still alive. She wasn't about to make him feel worse than he already did. "Yeah," she lied. "You never know."

* * *

"What are you doing out here?" Yuffie snapped at her unexpected visitor, folding her arms across her chest to cover up her nightshirt.

Her response was a small, barely noticeable smirk. She prides herself on the ability to catch those small glimpses of facial expression when it came to him.

"Vincent, seriously!" Yuffie wasn't mad. She was extremely surprised and embarrassed by the sudden company. She probably looked like crap. Her eyes were most likely all puffy and her nose was stuffed up from crying. Not to mention the fact that her nightshirt had a chocobo and a moogle on it! She didn't want anyone to see her like this, _especially_ Vincent. "I didn't wake you up, did I?" Now she was paranoid.

"No, you did not wake me up."

"Then why are you out here?" Yuffie asked resignedly, turning back towards the stars so she wouldn't feel as embarrassed when she looked him in the eye. That seemed to happen a lot whenever she was around him.

"I came to see if you were alright."

Yuffie gave a bitter laugh. "And why wouldn't I be okay? Everything's peachy. My life is just swell!" she sarcastically replied. She chose not to add, _"Why do _you_ care if I'm okay?"_

"Yuffie," the small taps of his metal boots meeting the floor of the deck were coming closer. "Do not play stupid with me." The tapping ceased. He must be right behind her.

"I'm not playing stupid, Vincent. Why wouldn't I be okay?" Yuffie still had her back to him, gazing upward at the stars. She wasn't about to submit to him. If he wanted to talk to her, then he could make a little bit more of an effort. Especially since he was slightly _rude_ to her back in the conference room.

She felt his claw hand come down upon her shoulder and yank her around so she was face to face with him. Surprised at his sudden force, she didn't notice his eyes widen somewhat when he saw what state she was in. She finally shrieked, "Why do you _care_, Vincent! Just leave me be."

He shook his head slowly. "You are upset about Sephiroth."

It felt like someone just pulled her heart out of her chest and ripped it to shreds. Why is it that he always knew what was bothering her? "Yes…maybe. There's more to it than just that, though."

"So tell me." Yuffie was finding it harder and harder to resist his low, smooth voice.

Letting out a huge sigh, she dropped her gaze to the floor and thought, _'What do I have to lose?…' _Looking back up slowly, she murmured, "You probably don't know this, but Sephiroth killed my mother."

Vincent closed his eyes for a few moments. "I figured as much."

"So that's one reason I don't want to side with him."

"There's…more than one reason?" Vincent's brows knotted together. He didn't understand.

"Yes, there is," her eyes were starting to water again. _'Gawd, what is it with me tonight?' _Rubbing her eyes before he could see any tears fall, she continued, "Back when we were traveling together with AVALANCHE, I was really excited to be a part of a group like that. Making friends, fighting bad guys, saving the world. It was all an experience of a lifetime and I wouldn't change it for anything." She closed her heavy-lidded eyes. "But at times, I just…I couldn't help but feel unappreciated…unwanted…_used_." She opened her eyes to see Vincent's eyebrows disappear underneath his black bangs. "It's like no matter what I did, I wasn't good enough to actually be part of your team. I was too small, too weak, too _young_; just a little obnoxious brat. Don't get me wrong, I know that I brought some of the bad feelings on myself when I chose to steal everybody's materia. But I did it for a reason, honest!" She crossed her arms over her chest again, rubbing her hands over her arms for warmth. "Godo…he wanted all that materia for the restoration of Wutai, or so he said. I was so blinded with returning Wutai to its former glory that I didn't realize that he was lying to me. He just wanted the materia for gil to make our country into even more of a tourist trap. He used me. My own _father_ used me. And it hurt…really _bad_," she shuddered. "But, still, even now, I am too stupid to see when people are using me."

"What do you mean?" Vincent asked softly.

"The WRO has all these tasks and mission for me all the time. And I do most of them for free since it's for Reeve, ya know?" _'I'm just letting it all out, aren't I?'_ she berated herself. "And I let him use me because then, maybe, someone will actually give me the credit that I deserve…a little bit of appreciation." Vincent blinked several times. "And _you_ guys!" Yuffie shoved her finger into his chest accusingly. "You just think that because another threat pops up, 'Oh, Yuffie will help! Oh, Yuffie this. Yuffie that.' You guys don't even care about how I feel!"

Yuffie tried to catch her breath; she was getting herself a little worked up. She barely even noticed when warm trails of tears escaped from her eyes yet again, or when Vincent's strong arms crushed her into him. "Is that really what you have believed all this time?" Yuffie heard his voice come above her head, and she nodded into his chest.

Vincent allowed her to let out all the pent up tears that she had been withholding for gods only know how long, making clumsy attempts at comforting her by rubbing her back softly. He couldn't help it. He wasn't used to young women crying in his arms and he didn't know what else to do.

After several moments, Vincent murmured to Yuffie, "You are mistaken. About everything. You don't realize that your father is trying to turn Wutai into a completely different place because it helps him forget about his wife. And changing Wutai into a tourist country rids him of the memories of how it was when she was still alive." He closed his eyes. "I am sure most men would do that if the love of their life was taken away. It eases the pain." Looking down at Yuffie's serene face, Vincent saw that Yuffie had cried herself to sleep, clinging her body to his. "And you are wrong about us, as well. We all care about you." Vincent untangled Yuffie's arms from him and lifted her into his arms without waking her. "I care about you." He gave the smallest of a smile, looking up at the sky to witness a shooting star flit past, before turning around to bring Yuffie to her room.

* * *

_A/N: I hope you all enjoyed this chapter! Review if ya can! Thanks for reading!! :)_

_-koalababay_


	7. Pancakes and Plans

**Disclaimer: **(see other 6 chapters…)

* * *

Chapter 7: Pancakes and Plans

"-fie!"

'_Hmm . . . what was that noise? . . . Oh, well . . .'_

"Yuffie! Wake up!"

She jerked upright, clutching her hand to her chest to stop her heart from exploding at the sudden shout. Yuffie blinked several times, clearing her blurry, sleep-induced vision to see the amused form of Tifa at the foot of her bed. She had her arms crossed and was smirking in an expectant way.

Telling herself that she didn't care why Tifa was waking her up, _very_ early in the morning, she dramatically sighed. "Go away!" Yuffie murmured before plopping back onto the bed, squeezing her pillow over her face in an attempt to drown out the feminine laugh that was now resounding in her room.

Now incredibly annoyed, Yuffie sat back up in her bed, throwing her pillow off to the side. "Teef! You wake me up, almost giving me a heart-attack in the process, and now you're _laughing_ at me!? What is so funny?"

Tifa clasped her hand over her mouth to muffle her laughter. Once she regained her composure, she cleared her throat and gave Yuffie a toothy grin. "Yuffs, I've been trying to wake you up for the last ten minutes!"

Yuffie's eyes widened. _'She's been yelling at me to wake up for _ten_ minutes!? Why didn't she just push me off the bed or something? Oh, wait. This is Tifa I'm talking about.'_

Letting out an amused sigh, Tifa walked to the side of Yuffie's bed and sat down. "But the reason I'm laughing is because I guess I forgot how grumpy you are after somebody wakes you up!" Tifa reached over to ruffle Yuffie's ebony hair.

"Hey!" Yuffie feigned offense as she tried to swat Tifa's hand out of her hair. Even though she tried to remain serious and upset that Tifa woke her up, she couldn't help but let a tired smile escape after she pushed Tifa's arm away from her head.

In all her years, Yuffie was always able to keep a mask of seriousness; she was a fantastic actor. Especially when she had an important mission to carry out, in which case she would be kicking bad guy butt with her many aliases and unmatched ninja skills on top of her great acting abilities.

In this instance, she didn't last long at all. Albeit, she wasn't trying hard, but still…

In a sudden burst of noise, Yuffie began to laugh obnoxiously. "Nobody messes with the Great Ninja Yuffie's hair," she tried to say as forcefully as she could, if it was even possible to do so while laughing.

"Oh, how could I have forgotten!" Tifa sarcastically proclaimed, resting the back of her hand to her forehead in fake astonishment. "I am _so_ sorry!"

Yuffie giggled again. "Yeah, fine. Just don't do it again, kay?" Tifa nodded in agreement. "Tifa, why are you waking me up, anyway?" Her jaw dropped when she glanced at the clock on her nightstand that was flashing _7:48_. "It's early!"

Tifa smirked at her friend's exclamation. "It's early to _you_. Maybe you just stayed up too late last night?"

Yuffie crossed her arms, trying her best to remove all traces of emotion that might reveal that she _was_ guilty of something the night before.

Tifa continued, "Everybody else is already up, eating breakfast. I wanted you to get a chance to have some of the pancakes I made before they're all gone."

Whipping her covers to the side and bolting out of bed, Yuffie screeched, "Pancakes! Why didn't you tell me that right away?" She started running for the door.

"Wait!"

Yuffie turned around, a look of pure confusion on her face. "What now?"

Tifa laughed and pointed to Yuffie's shirt. "You might want to put some pants on or something. I don't think your Choco-Mog nightshirt is long enough, do you?"

Yuffie blushed crimson, memories of where she was wearing that shirt last night, and who saw her in it came rushing to her mind. "Fine, _Mom_, I'll just shower and get changed. Then I'll meet you in the kitchen." She scurried to her bathroom, hoping to all gods that Tifa didn't notice the drastic color change in Yuffie's cheeks. "Be down in five minutes," Yuffie called over her shoulder as Tifa left her room.

Once Yuffie was sure that Tifa was gone, she closed the door to her bathroom and leaned against it, letting go of all her hidden emotions. _'Ohmigawd. How did I end up in my bed this morning?' _Her heart rate was beginning to pick up. _'The last thing I remember for sure is talking to Vincent outside on the deck…' _She looked at reflection in the mirror, eyes widening. _'He must've brought me back to my room!' _She slowly walked over to her bath to start running the water. _'Oh, I hope he doesn't think that I'm some crazy, emotional freak who can't control herself at all!'_

The entire time she was bathing and getting dressed, all Yuffie could think was how much she did _not_ want to face Vincent after making a fool of herself last night.

She knew she had to, though, and that made her dread the day ahead of her even more.

* * *

Tifa is secretly an expert chef. What else could explain it? She never fails to pull together a meal, at any time or place, for any number of people.

'_It always tastes amazing.'_

"You really look like you're enjoying those pancakes, Cumulus," came a cheerful voice from behind Cloud.

Cloud slowly turned his head to face Terra as she placed her own plate down and took a seat next to him. "Yeah." He took another bite of his breakfast. "It's good."

"I hope so." Terra rubbed her stomach animatedly. "I'm starving!"

Cloud turned to face Terra once more. "Did you sleep alright last night?"

"Well, not at first." Cloud noticed the smallest trace of pink in Terra's cheeks as she said that. "But, you probably knew that…"

Cloud shrugged and took another bite of his pancakes.

"After we talked, I was much more relaxed." Terra took her first bite of the pancakes. "Oh, you're right! These are amazing!" She reached over for the syrup and doused her pancakes with the substance. "Anyway, it felt good to finally have some questions answered. It was like a knife that was stuck in my head was finally removed!"

"I don' even wanna know what you two're talkin' about!" Cid's voice drifted in as he entered the kitchen, eyes set on the pancakes. "Oh, Teef made pancakes!"

"That probably was a weird analogy, but you know what I mean, right?" Terra whispered to Cloud, trying to hide the more prominent blush on her cheeks.

"Yeah, sure," Cloud responded, most of his attention directed at his food.

"Kay, good!" Terra began to scrutinize the pancakes, then shrugged, starting to eat ravenously.

Cid took a seat across from Terra and Cloud. "Geez, kid. When was the last time you had a decent meal?"

Terra's mouth was full of food as Cid asked her the question, so she had to quickly swallow a huge gulp of food in order to answer him. "Um, I don't know when my last decent meal was…it's been awhile, though." She left the response quite vague.

'_She obviously doesn't want to talk about it, Cid.' _Cloud thought to himself.

"Aw, come on! How can you not know when yer last good meal was?" Cid gestured to her body, causing Terra to blush even more furiously than before. "I mean, you're in good shape and all. I ain't saying you aren't---No, what I mean is you look great, it's just that since you were that rat bastard Hojo's test subject, I wouldn't think that---Wait!" Cid clapped his hands to his face in exasperation. "This is not comin' out right at all!"

'_Tried to warn him…' _Cloud thought, even though he had, in fact, never _said_ anything to stop Cid from continuing his conversation.

"Then tell her exactly what you meant to say," came a monotonous voice from behind Cid. Cid whipped around, not expecting such a sudden addition to the conversation. Vincent and Shelke entered the kitchen together.

Shelke continued, "Actually, perhaps it is better if you do not continue at all?"

Cid grumbled to himself, causing Terra to laugh softly. "Yeah, thanks a lot, kid," he sardonically replied to Shelke.

Attempting to change the subject, Terra urged Vincent and Shelke to load their plates up with pancakes to join them at the table. "They're absolutely delicious!" she insisted.

"I will sit with you, but I would rather not eat anything," Shelke quickly replied.

Cid murmured to himself grumpily as Shelke sat down next to him. Cloud caught a few of the words, like _"…girls," _and _"…food."_

Terra must not have been expecting Vincent to eat anything either, because she had a look of pure astonishment when he sat down on the other side of Cloud, plate filled to the brim with pancakes. Vincent noticed this and smirked slightly.

"Yeah, we were all surprised too when we found out that vampire-boy over there actually ate food and didn't drink people's blood!" Cid's gruff voice broke through Terra's reverie.

"Oh, no, it's not that…it's just," Terra fumbled with her words, trying to explain.

Cloud liked to think that he would have intervened and tried to make Terra more comfortable…if he wasn't eating his delicious breakfast of pancakes.

Terra gave up on trying to formulate a sentence, choosing to just remain quiet and continue eating.

Cid cleared his throat, feeling slightly awkward in the now silent kitchen.

'_It's never this quiet when Yuffie or Tifa are around…' _Cloud couldn't help but think.

"So you two must be close, huh?" Cid nodded to Terra and Cloud. He turned to Terra. "Was it hard for you to beat up Cloud yesterday?"

Cloud put down his fork and stared at Cid. _'He really doesn't know when to talk and when to shut up.'_

"Yeah, I was really close to Cloud, Zack and-" she was about to say something else, but chose not to. She quickly recovered, "Cloud and Zack were always there for me."

"Sure, but fighting him yesterday! What was that like?" Cid pressed.

"I don't think you underst-" Terra began.

"Cid, shut up," Shelke interrupted.

Cid whipped his head in Shelke's direction. "What--Why--You spend too much time with the brat!" he finally managed to spit out.

"Let's just say that I knew Cloud wasn't trying his hardest yesterday," Terra smiled. "I'm actually kind of hurt that he would believe that I would buy such a crappy act after being friends with him for a long time in SOLDIER."

Everyone's jaws dropped, including the spiky-haired blond. Cloud seemed surprised that Terra saw right through his façade, and everyone else just seemed to have had a question answered that had been eating away at them since yesterday.

Cloud's friends were slightly confused as to why he appeared to lose so easily, but now they fully understood. Cid began to chuckle obnoxiously as the realization sunk in.

Terra laughed softly in spite of the situation at the breakfast table. Turning to Cloud, she leaned over and whispered seriously into his ear, "What did you expect Cumulus? You _did_ take down Sephiroth…" She reached over and gave his shoulder a light squeeze in a friendly gesture. "You probably just didn't want to hurt me, right?" She winked. "You subliminally remembered me...or something..." she giggled.

Cloud gave a small smile in return, eyes twinkling with mirth. _'She always did know that I was a bad actor.'_

Now speaking in her normal tone of voice, Terra continued, "We'll have to have a rematch sometime. Where we give it our _all_!"

Cloud nodded. "Sure."

* * *

As Tifa was walking down the hall, she couldn't stop thinking about how Yuffie acted just before going into the bathroom. _'She seemed embarrassed about something. Then she tried to hide it.' _She shook her head slowly, laughing quietly to herself. _'I know Yuffie better than she knows herself sometimes. I'm pretty sure it has something to do with a certain red cloak-wearing man.' _Tifa smiled to herself_. 'But it's just a hunch.'_

Tifa wasn't too far away from the kitchen, but she was still able to smell the aroma of the pancakes, and hear the sound of her friends laughing and talking. _'I hope the pancakes turned out okay…'_

She finally made it to the entryway of the kitchen, and the first thing she noticed when she walked in was Terra whispering very intimately into Cloud's ear. Cloud smiled when Terra pulled away, touching his shoulder briefly. Cloud said something in reply, nodding, but Tifa couldn't hear any of it. The only thing pounding through her ears was the beating of her heart against her ribcage. And it was_ painful_. _'Sure. Nothing's going on between them…' _When Cloud looked up and saw her standing there, she instantly plastered a fake smile on her face to mask her hurt and confusion.

"Hey, everybody! How are my pancakes?" Tifa stepped into the kitchen and folded her arms across her chest, glancing around the table to see who was having breakfast.

Terra was the first to answer. "Oh, they are _so_ good! Thanks you so much for making them!"

There were nods and murmurs of agreement around the table. "Have you eaten yet, Teef?" Cid asked.

"No, I was j-" Tifa started.

"No!?" the pilot quickly interrupted. "Then sit yer ass down right now and eat breakfast, goddamnit! You do too much for everybody else and not enough for yerself!" Cid sighed and shook his head violently. _"Women!" _he muttered under his breath.

"Alright, alright!" Tifa scooped herself some pancakes from the counter. "Don't have a heart-attack, Cid."

Cid's head shot up. "Are you implyin' that I'm old!"

Tifa stifled her laughter as she took a seat next to him. "No, I just don't think it's a great idea to get yourself so worked up over such trivial things."

Tifa glanced at Cloud to see that he was trying hard to hold back his smirk. "Tifa, go easy on him. He's had a tough morning trying to remember what he was trying to say."

Cid stood up suddenly, pushing his empty plate to the middle of the table. "You too?" He pointed at Cloud. "Fine, I guess I'm just an ol' geezer to you guys." He turned to leave.

Tifa couldn't control her laughter anymore. "Cid, come on! We're just kidding!" She walked over to him and grabbed his wrist to drag him back to the table. "But if you keep responding like that to our jokes, then we might stop calling you _old_ and start calling you _other things_…"

"Like what?" he retorted.

"Like _BABY_! That works!" a high-pitched laugh came from behind them.

"Yuffie, how did you shower and get dressed so quickly?" Tifa was surprised to see the ninja so soon after leaving her room.

"You know me better than that, Teef." Yuffie walked over to the pancakes. "When someone says anything about food, I'm there in a flash! Plus, I am the Great Ninja Yu-" Yuffie cut herself off with a sharp gasp. "What!? Only five pancakes left!?"

"Isn't that enough for ya, brat?" Cid snapped back, smirking.

"Clearly not!" she huffed. "But that's okay. Later, I'll just sneak into--hehehe, never mind." She took a seat next to Tifa.

Cid glared at Yuffie. "Sneak into _what_?"

Tifa laughed. _'Oh, yeah. Cid still doesn't know that it was Yuffie who kept stealing his secret stashes of food from his room.'_

"Oh, nothing." Yuffie stuffed as much food as she possibly could into her mouth. To change the subject, Yuffie asked, "Hey, where's Red?"

"Hell, I dunno!" Cid scratched the stubble on his chin. He still hadn't forgotten about her near slip of the tongue, though, and was watching her with wary eyes. "I haven't seen him since last night."

"The last I spoke with him, he informed me that he sensed something strange outside," Vincent offered.

"That's weird. How long ago was that?" Yuffie tried not to meet Vincent's eyes. She was still embarrassed about last night.

"Three hours ago," he replied calmly.

Yuffie's eyes widened. "What? That must've been at 5 in the morning! Why were you guys up that early?"

Vincent just gave a soft grunt in reply, choosing not to elaborate further.

Yuffie huffed in annoyance. "Whatever…" She directed the rest of her attention at finishing her breakfast.

"I hope everything's alright." Tifa was worried. It wasn't like Red to just take off without a clear explanation.

"Don't worry, Teef. Red can take care of himself," Cid attempted to comfort her.

Tifa shook her head slowly. "I know. It's not that I don't think Red will be okay. I'm more worried about _why_ he took off."

Yuffie shrugged. "We'll find out soon enough," she said with her mouth full, causing bits of pancakes to fly across the table towards Cid.

"Git some manners, kid," he grumbled, examining his clothes to make sure that none of the food was splattered on them.

"Sorry," she mumbled.

Suddenly, Terra's mouth opened in a small 'o' as though she had just remembered something. "Um, Yuffie?"

"Yeah?" Yuffie choked out after she swallowed her large portion of pancakes.

"Have you decided whether or not you want to help me---us deal with Filix?" Terra finished, somewhat weakly.

"Yeah, actually." She looked around the table slowly. "I thought about it a lot last night," her cheeks were slowly reddening, and she was avoiding eye contact with Vincent at all costs. "I've decided that I want to help you. Everybody's entitled to a second chance, I guess."

Terra smiled wholeheartedly. "Oh, thank you, Yuffie. You have no idea how important this is to me."

Yuffie was taken aback by Terra's genuine emotions. "It's no problem…but if Sephiroth so much as touches any of us the wrong way, my kunai are coming out!"

Terra nodded. "I get it. I'm afraid that I have to have that mindset too, regardless of how much I don't want to-"

"You really don't want to hurt him, do you?" Yuffie cut in.

Terra's cheeks began to redden. "Um, no."

"Why?" Yuffie pressed. Cloud was looking at Terra, interested in her reasoning as well.

'_He doesn't know? I thought that would've been one of the things they were talking about last night,' _Tifa thought to herself. She looked back at Terra, awaiting her response.

"I just-What I mean to say is, I think that he deserves a chance to know that he wasn't created by an extraterrestrial lifeform or a mad scientist. He was conceived by a woman that loved him very much, and that would have given anything to see her son live a normal life."

"You're right. She gave her _life_," Vincent's deep baritone supplied. "But to no avail."

Terra's brows furrowed, and shook her head quickly. "Wait, I don't understand. How do you know so much about Lucrecia?"

Vincent closed his eyes and chuckled softly. "Thirty years ago, I was the same age and appearance as I am right now. In that time, I knew Lucrecia quite well."

Yuffie muttered something under her breath.

"Unfortunately, I knew Hojo as well. And I understand what it's like to be experimented on," he continued. "You are not alone in that respect."

Terra clapped her hand over her mouth in shock. After a few moments, she shakily asked, "You were one of his guinea pigs too?"

Vincent nodded solemnly.

"I'm sorry," Terra's head dropped down.

"There is nothing to be sorry about," Vincent responded. "It is done and over with."

"Yeah," Terra sighed. "But I'm guessing you're cursed with aftereffects of his experimenting too?"

Vincent nodded again, then added, "But not as bad as it once was. Chaos no longer lurks in my mind."

Terra gasped. "C-Chaos? Oh my…"

"Yup!" Yuffie pumped her fist into the air. "And Vinnie was awesome at controlling the little monster too, weren't ya!?"

Vincent shook his head slowly. "If only I had had more control…"

"HEY!" Yuffie banged her fist against the table. "You were a lot stronger than anybody else could've _dreamed_ to be if they would've been placed in that situation!"

Tifa's brows furrowed in confusion. _'First, she acts too embarrassed to even look at Vincent. Now, she's admonishing him for his self-deprecation. What is up with her, today?'_

"Anyway…" Terra tried to take the attention off of Yuffie, whose cheeks were starting to burn with the unwanted attention. "So you're like fifty years old?"

"More or less," Vincent calmly responded.

"Whew, I would've never thought of that by looking at you…" she trailed off.

"Now you really know what I meant about that vampire comment?" Cid joked.

"Yeah," Terra smiled.

"When we met him, he actually _was_ in a coffin!" Tifa laughed.

Vincent cleared his throat awkwardly. Terra looked flabbergasted. "Wait, are you kidding?"

"No, he really was," Tifa countered.

"…" Terra's jaw dropped.

Vincent cleared his throat again. "Shall we go back to Terra' reasoning for giving Sephiroth another chance?"

"…How did we get so off track?" Tifa wondered out loud.

"Come on, Teef. It's _us_!" Yuffie laughed. "We do that a lot."

Cloud joined the conversation. "You're doing it again, Yuffie."

Yuffie's eyes widened. "M-Me?!"

"He's just giving you a hard time, Yuffs," Tifa assured her, then turned to Terra. "So, you think Sephiroth deserves another chance." It was a statement, not a question.

Terra nodded vigorously. "I really do! He was a great ally, a skilled warrior…" she paused for a few moments to regain her train of thought. "And he was a good friend to me. I refuse to believe that those heinous acts were done by him. It was _Jenova_!" she sighed shakily. "And I miss him."

"I miss how he used to be too." Cloud reached over and rested his hand on top of Terra's in a comforting way.

Tifa tried to ignore the pain of her stomach knotting up even more at Cloud's simple gesture. _'She brings out another side of him. Maybe that's the Cloud she used to know…in SOLDIER?'_

Terra mouthed _"Thanks" _to Cloud, who simply nodded in response. Tifa wondered if Terra was thanking Cloud for more than one thing…

Tifa shook her head roughly to clear her straying thoughts. "We'll do our best to help you, Terra," she managed to voice. Turning to Cid, she added, "What about you? Have you decided whether or not you'll be joining us?"

Cid humphed. "Eh, why not! Plus, how else are you and yer sorry asses gonna get to where you need to go?" He crossed his arms proudly.

"Don't be so sure, old man," Yuffie smirked. "I bet Reno could get me a lift in his helicopter anytime, for free."

Cid uncrossed his arms and glared at Yuffie. "Dammit, brat! I thought I told you to stay away from them Turks!"

"You're not my dad!" Yuffie crossed her arms angrily. "And I happen to like the Turkeys!"

"How'd that happen?" Cloud wondered out loud.

Yuffie laughed. "I never thought it would happen either. But I guess after doing so many missions with them in the reconnaissance field…I dunno. We all get along pretty well now."

"Hey, kid?" Cid interrupted.

"What?" she chirped back.

"Just promise me you won't get too close to the red-headed asshole."

Yuffie smirked and muttered under her breath, _"Too late."_

Tifa heard what Yuffie had muttered, and she had to control herself so she wouldn't laugh out loud at the ninja's comment. _'Yuffie and Reno. Now there's an interesting thought.'_

Shelke stood up suddenly. "Please excuse me. I am going to go outside for some fresh air."

"Would you like one of us to accompany you?" Vincent asked, getting ready to stand to join her.

"Shelke is a big girl, Vince," Yuffie said. Shooting a dark look to Cid, she added, "Just like _me_. She can take care of herself."

"Very well," Vincent nodded as Shelke left the kitchen.

"So, guys," Terra began. "I was thinking that maybe we could head over to Nibelheim sometime this week so we could check out Hojo's lab."

"You were in the Shinra mansion this whole time?" Cloud asked.

"Um, no. I was somewhere else." Terra cleared her throat. "I can show you when we get there, though."

"Fine by me," Cloud responded.

Yuffie was finally finished with her pancakes and ran over to the counter to see if she could find any more food. She was no longer visible as she ducked her head into one of the cupboards below the counter to search some more.

"Hey, look who it is!" Cid suddenly exclaimed.

A loud thump came from below the counter, followed by a loud "OW!" Yuffie popped up again, rubbing her sore head.

Red walked into the kitchen followed by Barret and Shelke. "I sensed something was amiss outside, and when I left the airship to investigate, I found Barret walking around a few miles west of here. He was pacing around and was so deep in thought, he didn't even hear me approach."

"Yeah, well, ya damn paws aren't exactly easy to hear when you prance around!" Barret countered indignantly.

Red glared at the large man with his good eye. "I do not _prance_."

"What were you doing out there, Barret?" Tifa asked softly. "I thought you were going to go back to Corel."

Barret chuckled nervously. "Eh, long story short: I called Elmyra to tell her I was comin' home and she asked why…." He started to examine his gun arm to break his eye contact with the people in the kitchen. "Let's jus' say that after I told her, she made me feel like an asshole."

Cid's laughter resounded throughout the kitchen at Barret's expense. Tifa elbowed him in the gut to get him to shut up.

"Myra won' be 'specting me anytime soon now," Barret finished.

"We're glad to have you back, big guy!" Tifa tried to make him feel better. Barret had always been there for her, ever since she can remember. She figured that it was the least she could do, as a friend, to make him feel a bit better.

"Yeah!" Yuffie happily agreed, followed by more grunts and affirmations around the table of agreement.

Barret sighed in relief. His confidence seemed to be back to normal now. "Oh, and Terra? Sorry 'bout overreacting yesterday."

Terra smiled kindly. "I completely understood. It's no problem."

Barret nodded and took a seat in one of the empty chairs. He looked over at Cloud and asked, "So what are our plans, Mr. Leader?"

Cloud grimaced at the annoying nickname, but acknowledged the question by explaining what they were going to do later on that week.

Barret slapped his hand against his thigh enthusiastically. "Awright! Can't wait to smash up that Fricks guy!"

"Barret, it's Filix," Yuffie corrected, only resulting in Barret waving his hand in the air in a dismissive manner.

Tifa smiled to herself. _'Wow. He's really excited. It's almost like it was a few years ago. Only we have a few extra members than when we started.'_ She looked over to Cloud. _'…But one _less_ member as well.' _Tifa sighed as she stood up to start collecting all of the dirty dishes._ 'I can only hope that we come out of this with the same number that we started with…'_

_**

* * *

**_

Author's Notes:

Hey thanks everybody for the support in reviews! They make me feel so GOOD! =)

I hope this chappie was worthy!

I tried to make it a bit more fluffy and lighthearted than other chappies b/c I was trying to show a bit of the characters' relationships w/ one another.

For right now, I think the POVs of the chapters are either going to be in Cloud, Tifa, or Yuffie's POV. (it's just easiest for me to write)

So yeah! Thanks again everybody for reading!

AND I'll get the next chappie out as soon as possible!! ;)

_Quick poll_: Since I have this as a Cloud/Tifa (even though Tifa's having issues with the GREEN EYED MONSTER…lol), I was wondering if I should make the second pairing a DEFINITE Yuffie/Vincent…or Yuffie/???

Feedback would be much appreciated!! =)

_-koalababay-_


	8. The Art of Betrayal

**Disclaimer: **Like I actually own _anything. _Puh.

**A/N: **koalababay needs to apologize in advance for this chappie. some people may not like it. eh…it had to be done…

* * *

Chapter 8: The Art of Betrayal

'_Where is she taking us?' _Tifa thought to herself impatiently. '_We've been walking on Mount Nibel for hours!…_I've_ never even ventured out this far before! And I lived here more than half my life…'_

"So, uh, where exactly did you say Filix's place was?" Yuffie ran up to Cloud's long lost friend to keep up with her brisk pace, voicing exactly what Tifa had been thinking only seconds before.

"I didn't say where his lab was," Terra deadpanned, brushing her auburn hair out of her face. She had been a lot more stone-faced this past week than on the first couple days after the group had met her. Tifa quirked a brow, curious as to why Cloud's cheerful friend had developed such a distant attitude.

"It's not far from here," Terra continued, walking even faster than before. "Just follow me."

Yuffie shook her head. "That's what we've _been _doing," she muttered under her breath. She slowed down her pace a bit so she could walk with Tifa. "Hey, why did only five of us come, Teef?" the young ninja questioned, tilting her head to the side slightly. "Cid was super pissed that he had to stay in the _Shera_."

Tifa sighed, glancing upon the back of Cloud's head as he matched Terra's pace. "He and Terra agreed that it would be best if we kept the party number fairly small." She looked over at the other person that was silently accompanying them: Shelke. "Otherwise, we're at more of a risk to monsters in the area. Not to mention, we don't even know what we're going to discover today in that man's lab…"

Yuffie followed Tifa's gaze until it landed on Shelke. The ninja didn't pry her eyes away from the small girl's figure.

Tifa noticed this, fighting back a smirk. "You are _so _jealous."

"Of what?" Yuffie asked briskly, still staring at Shelke.

Tifa laughed this time, causing Yuffie to break away from her wandering thoughts to glare at her. "You know what I'm talking about, Yuffs. Don't play stupid with me."

Yuffie crossed her arms, looking at the ground sheepishly. "Don't bring it up again, kay?"

Tifa smiled softly. "Bring what up? That you're in love with Vincent?"

Yuffie's eyes widened and she reached over with unmatched speed to press her hands over Tifa's mouth. "Shhh! Not so loud!" Yuffie slowly removed her hands from Tifa's face, earning another laugh from the barmaid. Yuffie groaned, slapping her hand to her forehead. "What if someone heard you!? Then _everyone _would know!" she shrieked sardonically.

Tifa wrapped her arm around her young friend's shoulders as they continued to walk. "Calm down. Not everybody knows…least of all _him. _Don't worry so much."

"How can I not worry!?" Yuffie exclaimed. "If Vinnie ever found out, he'd probably just end up distancing himself from me even more than he usually does…and he'd take _Shelke_ with him." Yuffie's gaze returned to Shelke, who was walking several feet ahead of them. "It kinda hurts to always be left behind, ya know."

Tifa shook her head slowly. "Yuffie…"

"But that's okay!" Yuffie masked her despondent expression with a new, triumphant look. "The Great Ninja Yuffie does not get lovesick over stupid old vampires who don't have enough time for sexy shinobis and who think they're so hot and wonderful and have the best aim _ever _with their rusty gun and-"

"Yuffie!" Tifa pushed the ninja to the side slightly to get her to stop ranting about Vincent.

"Oof!" Yuffie wasn't ready for the unexpected shove, and she ended up tripping over her own feet.

Tifa stopped walking to help her up. "Sorry about that, Yuffs," she apologized. "I just wanted you to stop talking so much about Vincent." She pulled Yuffie to her feet. "It gets a little old after awhile..."

Yuffie brushed herself off, trying to maintain her dignity. "I do _not _talk about Vince that much! Besides," she huffed, readjusting her bandana, "I _meant _to fall over. Ninjas don't lose their balance."

"Whatever you say," Tifa murmured, humoring Yuffie for the time-being. She can win this one little battle…for now.

A nervous look suddenly came over Yuffie's face. "Uh, Tifa?"

"What's wrong?" Tifa implored, worried. Yuffie's emotions sure have been jumping around a lot this afternoon. _'That's just Yuffie, I guess.'_

Yuffie slowly looked around the desolate, rocky expanse of Mount Nibel, biting her lip. "Where did everybody go?"

Tifa craned her head around the surrounding area, as well. _'Oh, no.' _"I have no idea." _'I need to be strong…like Cloud.' _"Let's keep walking, though. I'm sure we'll run into them. They couldn't have gotten too far in such a short amount of time."

"Sounds like a plan to me." Yuffie's chipper expression was plastered on her face yet again. "I'll find 'em." She ran way ahead of Tifa, glancing back for a brief second. "Just follow my lead!" she shouted.

"Yuffie, don't get so far ahead-"

Too late. The young ninja had already run down the next slope of the mountains, and was no longer able to be seen. Tifa shook her head in exasperation, starting to run so she could catch up with her friend. A high-pitched scream suddenly resounded throughout the entire mountains, digging right into Tifa's heart. _'That was Yuffie.' _She started to sprint to where she had last seen Yuffie, heart pounding in her chest all the while.

"Yuffie!" she called. "Where are you!?" Tifa kept running, trying to fight back the panicky feeling that was steadily closing in on her gut. She ran down the same slope that Yuffie had run over, and before she could even comprehend it, there was nothing under her feet anymore. She was falling. _Fast. _Who knew where she would end up when she landed…if she would even _be_ alive after landing.

"Oof!" Tifa heard that familiar grunt of pain for the second time that day. And it wasn't her own. Her descent was cut surprisingly short. She wondered how she could have possibly survived the fall. It was because of the soft object underneath her, she supposed.

"_Wudagofameh-" _a muffled voice came from right below Tifa's rear end.

She slowly looked underneath her, and jumped up when she saw that it was the young ninja, sprawled out on the concrete flooring. "I'm so sorry, Yuffie. Are you alright?"

Yuffie closed her eyes with a pained expression on her face. "I'm just _peachy_," she gasped out.

Tifa looked around in confusion. The sight that greeted her was what appeared to be a very old library. There were books strewn everywhere; on tables, on the floor, and stacked onto each other. "Where are we?"

Yuffie gave a hard laugh. "I was thinking the same thing, but then you landed on me, and I think I lost consciousness for a second or two." She tried to suppress a few coughs.

"I'm _sorry _about that!" Tifa walked over to pull Yuffie to her feet for the second time. "Are you sure you're okay?" She really wanted to say, _"You shouldn't have run ahead!" _but at the last moment, a voice in her head told her not to.

Tifa was Yuffie's friend, not her mother.

"Eh, I'm fine!" Yuffie replied. She looked up to view the hole that was now splotched on the ceiling of the library. It was the hole she had created _(on accident!)_, and Tifa had fallen through as well.

Tifa followed Yuffie's gaze to the ceiling, and crossed her arms. "We're inside the mountains." She gave Yuffie a significant look. "I think we may have just found the place we were looking for."

Yuffie snorted. "You mean Filix's lab? Why would it be underneath the mountains!? That's stupid! If I was a mad scientist, then _my _lab would be in a top-secret, awesome location where no one can simply _fall _into it! I mean, _really!? _Plus, we're in a freakin' library!" Yuffie dramatically waved her arms around the room, gesturing to all the books.

"You explain where we are, then!" Tifa challenged with a small smile.

Yuffie nodded dramatically. "Easy! We-"

A sudden pound of metal against metal came from behind them. Yuffie squealed at the harsh sound, cutting off whatever she was going to say before. Tifa and Yuffie turned around slowly and their jaws dropped when spiky blond hair came into their line of sight. "C-Cloud?" Tifa stuttered. He had just crashed open the door that led to the library area. "We thought we lost you guys above on the mountains!"

Cloud nodded, furrowing his eyebrows slightly. "Sorry, we noticed you guys weren't behind us after we reached the entrance to this lab."

"Wait!" Yuffie cut in. "So this _is _Hojo and Filix's lab?" Yuffie looked at Tifa, who was giving her a proud smirk that was just itching to say, _"Told ya so!" _

No, she wouldn't actually _say_ it. Tifa was not that immature.

Cloud scratched the back of his head in confusion at the looks his two friends were giving each other. "Uh…yeah. So, we got to the entrance and realized you guys weren't with us anymore, but Terra just told us to go ahead anyway. She figured you guys would probably catch up with us later…which you did. So…" Cloud trailed off, mako blue eyes finally taking in the sight of the hole in the ceiling of the library.

"Terra sure was kind to wait for us," Yuffie muttered sarcastically.

Cloud ignored Yuffie's comment. "How did you guys get here?"

"Come on, Chocobo-head," Yuffie sighed. "You _just_ looked at the ceiling. Put two and two together," she shot out in annoyance.

"You actually fell through?" Cloud asked. His voice held as much surprise as it could, coming from Cloud. And that was saying a lot.

Yuffie crossed her arms over her chest in a defensive stance. "Yeah, well I didn't exactly know that walking on the mountains has a smallrisk of falling through to your quite plausible _death_!" Her voice was dripping with sarcasm. "You should be asking us if we're okay!" She paused for a moment. "No, you should be asking _me _if I'm okay! I was the one who landed on this freakin' hard ground, while Tifa got to land on the nice, soft, cushiony goodness that is my awesome ninja self."

Cloud approached Tifa with a trace of concern on his otherwise unreadable expression. "Are you alright, Tifa?" He was less than a foot away from her, and he did a quick once-over of her condition, making sure she didn't have any injuries. Tifa blushed at his up-close scrutiny.

In the background, Yuffie grumbled inaudibly, "The Great Ninja is _marvelous_! Thank you for your selfless concern, O Spiky One."

"I-I'm fine, Cloud," Tifa managed to respond, clearing her throat so no one would notice her embarrassment. She and Cloud didn't happen to hear Yuffie's annoyed remark. Otherwise, Cloud would have made an annoyed comment or look in response. That's just how those two were with each other.

"What have you guys found in the lab so far?" Tifa wanted to change the subject. Desperately.

Cloud seemed to snap out of whatever emotion he was feeling up until that point, and walked over to one of the shelves of books. "Well, this must be the researching area." He grabbed one of the books and started to flip through the pages. He sighed after a few seconds, putting the book away. "Everywhere else besides this area is specifically for the experimentation. I'm not sure if you guys would want to see it…there are dirty tools, old experiments-"

"What do you mean by _old experiments_?" Yuffie interrupted with a repulsed look on her face. Cloud opened his mouth to respond, but Yuffie cut him off again. "Never mind. I don't even wanna know."

"Is Filix here?" Tifa asked the most important question of all. Yuffie looked at Cloud expectantly, as well, waiting for his answer.

Cloud sighed and shook his head. "That's the weird part. He's nowhere to be found. Other than this room, there's no evidence of him being here at all…which doesn't make sense because Terra was just here not too long ago."

"So she says," Yuffie couldn't help but add. She put her arms in the air in an indifferent manner when Cloud and Tifa glared at her. "Hey, don't look at me like that. I bet you guys are thinking the same thing. This place…there's something not right."

A bloodcurdling scream resonated from the direction that Cloud came from and all three of them looked at each other in fear before dashing out of the room. _'Oh, shit. That sounded like…Shelke. Please, gods, let her be okay."_

* * *

'_Oh my gawd, that was Shelke!" _Yuffie thought desperately to herself as she, Cloud, and Tifa rushed to find her. _'Vincent's gonna flip if anything happens to her…'_

Yuffie's heart was beating so hard against her chest, it was painful for her to breathe. It wasn't from running. It wasn't from the damp, musky air of the disgusting lab. No. She had a terrible feeling in the pit of her stomach. One that she couldn't ignore, regardless of how hard she tried to.

They finally came to the main area of the laboratory. Yuffie felt sickened by the sight. There was a huge, furry, yet somehow gelatinous blob of a monster on one side of the room. It was dead. One of Terra's katanas was sticking out of it. One the other side of the room was Terra, kneeling over Shelke's crumpled form.

Terra looked frantic as she tried to keep Shelke awake. "Please, stay with me. Don't close your eyes!" Even though Terra was trying her hardest to heal Shelke, a trace of hopelessness was visible in her eyes.

Yuffie dashed over to them and slid to her knees as she took in Shelke's state. Her face was scrunched in pain, and her entire torso was drenched with blood. She looked up at Terra accusingly. "What the hell happened, _Terra_!?"

The auburn-haired woman flinched, not missing the venom dripping from Yuffie's voice when she shouted her name. "One of Filix's old experiments…he left it here alive…i-it snuck up on me." She glanced at Shelke sadly. "I was reading one through one of Filix's old notebooks, so I was distracted. She pushed me out of the way."

Yuffie gave a mirthless laugh. "You actually expect me to believe that." It wasn't in the form of a question.

'_Who does this girl think she's fooling?' _Yuffie shook her head a few times. She might have been able to charm her way back into Chocobo-head's heart, but this ninja is not going to fall for it. She had seen so many cases like it after working for the WRO for such a long time. Seemingly innocent girl leads _actually _innocent "friends" to a seemingly innocent place. Then she strikes. Or in this case, a big ugly monster strikes. But that's beside the point.

Terra was a traitor. Hell, she was a stupid bitch too if she thought she could fool the Single White Rose of Wutai.

"So tell me," Yuffie drawled. Terra didn't look up. She was still trying to restore Shelke's mortally wounded midsection to its former condition. Odd. Her cure materia wasn't having any effect at all. "What did Filix do to get you to lure us here?" Yuffie stood up, looking around. "I mean, he's obviously here, waiting for us."

"Yuffie. Enough." Yuffie finally realized that Cloud and Tifa were there too. She had been so caught up in her epiphany that her mind had become slightly one-track. She looked at Cloud with an uncharacteristically serious expression. "No, Cloud. I'm right. You're just too infatuated by her at the moment to see that the truth is _right in front of you._"

Tifa's hands balled up into fists, and Yuffie could've sworn the martial artist's face reddened slightly at her tactless implication. _'Shit. I shouldn't have said it that way. Oh well. Too late now.'_

Cloud shook his head slowly. "Terra." She met his eyes hesitantly. "Don't tell me what Yuffie's saying is actually true."

Terra's eyes started to water. "No! Of course not, Cloud." She sniffed. "This is just a big misunderstanding. Filix…h-he should've been here, I _swear._" She closed her eyes and the tears freely fell down her cheeks. "I was _just_ here when he was_…_" she trailed off as the sobs overtook her ability to talk.

Yuffie rolled her eyes. "Oh, boo-hoo. Just shut up." She got back to her knees and shoved Terra out of the way so she could try to heal Shelke herself. "Shit…why isn't my materia working!?"

Shelke's uneven breaths were becoming even more raspy and even more erratic. She was clearly in a lot of pain. "Y…Yuffie." The ninja's eyes widened as she leaned in closer to Shelke as she gasped out her name. It was the first time Shelke had ever called Yuffie by just her first name.

"Shelke, please don't strain yourself! You'll be good as new in just…a second." Yuffie's brows furrowed as she chanted the cure incantations over and over and _over_ but nothing was able to staunch Shelke's blood loss. _'What the hell!?'_

"Yuffie." Shelke's voice was a bit firmer this time. "Stop." Yuffie clenched her jaw to keep her chin from quivering as she looked into Shelke's tired eyes. "T…The only source that can…ever fully cure me….is…"

"Pure mako," Yuffie finished for her, and then slapped her hand over her mouth to silence the hiccoughs that were sure to make themselves known very soon.

Shelke gave a weak nod. "Correct." She looked at Yuffie and her expression changed slightly. In her excruciating pain, she almost looked peaceful. Content even, to finally be at rest. _'No! She's not gonna die when I can still do something to save her!'_

Tifa gasped sharply and whispered something that sounded very desperately like Cloud's name. Then, Yuffie heard the static of Tifa's walky-talky and the rushed, panicked voices going back and forth between the devices.

Yuffie paid no mind to any of the background noise. She was focusing very hard on the fine details of Shelke's face, all the while willing herself not to cry. _'Ninjas don't cry. Ninjas don't cry. Ninjas do NOT cry.' _A few tears escaped from the corners of Yuffie's eyes. "Gawdammit, Shelke," she muttered, grabbing the injured girl's arms and burying her face in them. "Why? You can't go! Vincent needs you!" A few more sobs escaped. "WHY!?"

Shelke coughed out a few mirthful laughs. "It is what I wish to happen Yuffie. I will be fine." She closed her eyes. "You…will be fine. Thank you for…everything." She let out one final exhale. Her chest stopped rising and falling. Shelke didn't breathe back in.

"Oh, no you don't!" Yuffie grabbed Shelke's shoulders and started to forcefully shake them.

Shelke wouldn't open her eyes again. The tiny bit of color that once tinted her cheeks was no longer apparent. Yuffie couldn't feel a pulse. "DAMMIT!" The young ninja collapsed into a heap on top of Shelke.

Shelke was finally one with the lifestream. She'd finally be able to see her sister, her family. Hell, she'd see Shalua, Aeris, and even Lady Kisaragi. Yuffie felt a prickle of envy in her heart at Shelke's bittersweet blessing.

Shelke Rui was finally at peace.

* * *

Tifa couldn't move. She stood there, motionless, as Yuffie poured her entire heart out for poor Shelke. _'Why her? Why not…me?' _There were always casualties. That wasn't uncommon. But Tifa never thought it would be the seemingly indestructible Shelke that would have her life taken away from her.

A tingle of shivers went up Tifa's spine. _'Who else are we going to have to lose? We're only trying to help the planet!' _She remained rooted to the spot. She had no idea why she couldn't control her muscles, her mind, her _body _enough to tell it to go comfort Yuffie.

Cloud had the control that Tifa seemed to lack at that moment. He calmly strode over to where Yuffie was in hysterics and gently lifted her up into his arms, bridal style. He began whispering senseless murmurs into her ear. _Anything _to get the always happy, always lovable, always laughing ninja to stop crying.

Nothing worked.

Hours seemed to drag by. Tifa stood there, staring off into space. Cloud held Yuffie, trying to calm her down. Terra…

Tifa's eyes widened suddenly. She looked around apprehensively. _'Terra's gone?'_

No answer came. Instead, the pounding of another door crashing open greeted her ears. Vincent had finally come after she contacted him with her walky-talky. Nanaki, Barret and Cid agreed to stay behind to get the ship ready to go.

Tifa never dreamed she would actually need to use the stupid device. Cloud had said…only in an emergency would they have to use it.

"What happened?" Vincent asked in his chronically deep, calm voice. Tifa hadn't had the heart to tell him over the walky-talky. She just informed him that there was an emergency and they needed back-up. Pronto.

There was no need for Tifa to explain even then because, at that moment, Vincent's eyes drifted over Shelke's stone-cold form. His eyes widened, and he slowly walked over to his dead companion. When he got to her, he dropped to his knees and bowed his head in silent mourning.

"Vincent," Yuffie hiccoughed from within Cloud's arms. "I'm s-s-sorry!" Her nose was pink from all the sniffling and her eyes were bloodshot for her constant crying. "T-The materia wouldn't work!"

Vincent shook his head, reaching out to lift Shelke into his arms. He gave a heavy sigh and turned to walk back out the door that he came from. When he reached the door, he paused for a moment, glancing back at Cloud and Yuffie. Cloud got the hint and nodded, following him out.

Tifa remained where she was standing. _'This can't be real. Shelke didn't just…die.'_ The martial artist crossed her arms over her chest to try to stop the pain. It didn't help at all. Glancing around the lab one more time before following Cloud and Vincent, Tifa's eyes fell upon something she didn't notice before. Next to one of the experimentation tables was a counter full of unclean tools. On top of those tool was a red and gold speckled notebook. '_That must've been what Terra was reading through before…'_

Tifa walked over to the notebook and stared at it, hands shaking, debating what to do. The front of the notebook said, "This is **Filix's** notebook. If you are not **Filix**, please walk away this instant." She had to give it to Terra, this guy seemed like every bit the oddity that she described him to be. He had gone over his name several times with a dark pen so his name to look incredibly bolded on the cover. Sighing, she picked it up. Tifa really wanted to open it. Maybe then she'd get some answers. Plus, she would find out what was so important that it distracted _Terra_ from noticing the old fiendish experiment.

But at the same time, a part of her was screaming for her to put it down, and walk away. She wasn't so sure she wanted to know what this guy was up to…or if there even_ was _a guy named Filix. For all they knew, Terra could've made _everything _up, including the fake prop that happened to be in Tifa's hands at that moment.

Tifa shook her head. As much as she wanted to believe that everything was a lie, she just couldn't. Terra's face…she looked so heartbroken when Yuffie started shouting at her. Tifa rubbed her eyes forcefully with her spare hand, groaning. But then what would explain the experiment that was so conveniently left behind? Everything seemed like a perfect set-up.

"Dammit!" she moaned, pounding her fist against the counter, leaving a nice long crack in her fist's wake.

"Tifa?"

The martial artist recoiled at the sudden voice that broke through her intense thoughts. Cloud's face came back into view by the door. He brows were furrowed and he looked slightly worried.

"Sorry," she sighed, stuffing the notebook in her back pocket. "I'm coming."

**

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**

A/N:

"What's that you're saying there? _Oh well_. Rain rushing window pain. _Oh well_. Not sure what space I'm in. _Oh well_. But I'm safe inside me here. _Oh well_."

Super-duper-mega props and my complete respect to whoever knows the song I'm currently obsessed with by looking at those **lyrics**!! (I listened to it while I wrote this chappie!)

…

Oh, and I'm really sorry about what happened to Shelke. That's definite for her, unfortunately. I'm REALLY sorry if you were a fan.

On a lighter note: Thanks for all the reviews! I love them. Keep 'em coming. They keep me _going…_

HAPPY HOLIDAYS! =D

_-koalababay-_


	9. Entries

Chapter 9: **Entries**

It had been a month since Shelke's death. A month since the solemn funeral. A month since they had last seen Terra. At the mention of the auburn-haired woman, though, every single one of Tifa's friends would visibly stiffen, or in Barret or Cid's case, curse very loudly. No one dared to talk about her because no one wanted to even _think _about her. She had betrayed them all, sending Shelke to her death in the process.

She was their enemy now.

Filix's notebook wouldn't force itself out of the barmaid's mind, though. After everything that had happened to them, the sadness, the pain, and the _loss_…Tifa couldn't stop herself from wondering what was beyond the red and gold speckled cover. It had been sitting, untouched, on her nightstand for the past month.

Tifa _couldn't _stop thinking about Terra either. She felt, in the pit of her stomach, that something wasn't quite right with the seemingly incriminating situation. It was _too _perfect a set-up, _too _perfect a trap…what if it really wasn't that simple? What if Terra had been telling the truth?

Tifa shook her head, sighing for what felt like the millionth time that day. "I need to forget about it. About everything. I…we _all _need to move on with our lives." Tifa crossed her arms over her aching chest, willing her heart to keep all of its suppressed sadness inside. She watched as the rain streamed down the window from the earlier storm.

'_It's hard moving on when it feels like nothing is going right.'_

Yuffie was in a state of depression; she somehow felt responsible for Shelke's death, as though she could've done something _more _to save her. The only thing was, no one blamed her. Especially Vincent. But the young ninja didn't realize that because she was still too blinded by her guilt, and by her love for Vincent, to see the truth. She was torn, thinking that Vincent had lost yet _another _woman that he loved…but couldn't save.

Tifa tried to comfort her best friend as best as she could, assuring her that there was nothing else she could've done; it was Shelke's time to go...but nothing helped the poor ninja. She had locked herself in her room in Seventh Heaven, where she stayed for the majority of every single day for the past month. The only person that she would allow inside her room to talk to her was Vincent. But even _that _was rare…and a little surprising.

Tifa tried to keep her pain inside for everyone else's sake. Their morale, as a whole, was completely diminished. It was up to the motherly barmaid to keep everyone optimistic, happy, and healthy, both emotionally and physically…but it really took a toll on her in the process. It was always painful to plaster on that comforting smile everyday when _she _was really the one that needed to be comforted by someone.

She inhaled shakily as she felt her eyes start to water.

'_I won't cry. I can't let this beat me.'_

"Tifa?" a calm voice startled her out of her reveries.

Tifa turned around slowly to see Cloud standing hesitantly in the doorway. "Yes?" She gave him a small smile.

Cloud took a step into the room, shutting the door behind him. "We need to talk."

Tifa crossed her arms in slight anxiety. "Okay. About what?" She blinked her eyes a few times to make sure that no tears had betrayed her by breaking through her willpower and cascading down her cheeks.

She was happy to discover that her cheeks were still dry.

He sighed, scratching the back of his spiky blond head. "Well…I'm…worried about you. You haven't been yourself lately." He took a few more steps closer to her. "I was wondering if there was anything I can do…to help?"

Tifa laughed sadly, causing a few embarrassing tears to escape afterwards. "C-Cloud, I should be asking _you_ that question." She closed the distance between them and looked deep into his troubled orbs. "Terra is…was your friend. This must be hard for you. I don't know what I'd do if one of our friends…" she trailed off, looking down at the ground as more tears escaped.

Suddenly, Tifa felt Cloud's hands on her face, his thumbs carefully rubbing the tears away. "Look at me, Tifa."

Her eyes widened at the unexpected emotion that was laced in his voice at that moment, and she slowly looked up at him again.

"You shouldn't bear everyone else's pain for them." He gently pulled her into a careful hug. "That's not fair to you, Tifa. And I can't…can't stand seeing you like this."

Tifa wrapped her arms around Cloud as tightly as she could, letting out all of her emotions. The tears, the guilt, the sadness, the anger…they all drifted away as Cloud held her in his strong arms. She felt safe with him. She always did. And she had _always_ wanted to hug him like this…but the time had never been right.

"T-Thank you, Cloud," Tifa managed to say between sniffles. "I needed this." She buried her face into Cloud's chest, where she could feel his steadily increasing heart rate.

'_I wonder why his heart is beating so fast…' _Tifa wondered to herself.

Cloud sighed again, resting his chin on the top of Tifa's head. He murmured something that sounded, to Tifa, suspiciously like _"So did I…"_

After a few more comfortable moments in their embrace, Tifa unwrapped her arms from Cloud and took a small step back. She wiped the remaining tears from her eyes and gave him a genuinely happy smile. "Thank you."

Cloud nodded, a small smile on his own face. "It was the least I could do…after everything you've done for me over the years."

Tifa sighed. "Well, I guess we're even now, huh?" She laughed. "Not like I've been keeping track."

Cloud laughed softly. "Yeah. I guess so." His eyes drifted from Tifa to the notebook on the nightstand next to her. He quirked a brow. "Where did you get that?"

Tifa followed his gaze to the notebook. She picked it up, biting her lip in indecision. _'I think we need to stick together on this…'_

"Cloud, I found this in Filix's lab," Tifa explained. Cloud's eyes widened. "I was going to tell you, but I wasn't sure if I was even going to do anything with it." She brought it over to him, her mind made up. "Will you read it with me? I think it may have some answers we've been looking for."

Cloud nodded, and they both took a seat on Tifa's bed to open up the mysterious scientist's notebook.

* * *

**Day 1**

I can't believe that I, Filix Johaz, have actually been assigned to _the _famous Professor Hojo as his apprentice! Mother and Father, _of course, _could care less, but all that matters is that my dream is finally coming true. This is the one thing that got me through my childhood, teenage years, and even a few years into adulthood. All the taunts, mockery, and insults were definitely worth it now that I finally get to work with Professor Hojo.

He even gave me this extravagant notebook in which I can record data from laboratory experiments. How generous of him!

Well, he doesn't know that I'm also using it as a journal, but that is neither here nor there. What Master Hojo doesn't know won't hurt him.

Anyway, since today is my very first day under his study, Master Hojo will just continue to give me all of his extensive knowledge on the basic tools, formulas, chemicals, and other various necessities to be a great scientist. He said that normally it would take a few days for an apprentice to understand what each tool is used for, but in my case, he was surprised that I caught on so quickly. He said I was a natural.

_ME! _

I know, I can hardly believe it myself.

I think Master Hojo could possibly become the father figure I have always been looking for in my life...

^*^*^*^*^*^*

**Day 5**

Master Hojo is truly amazing. His infinite knowledge, his kindness…everything about him is marvelous. I'm lucky to have gotten a chance to work with him like this.

And I believe that I am beginning to grow on him. I could tell, for the first few days, that he didn't seem as though he wanted an apprentice by his side at all times. He is the type of scientist who likes to work alone. But then, I kept surprising him with how much I helped him with his data and experiments.

I believe that he has high expectations of me. I will never let him down.

^*^*^*^*^*^*

**Day 7**

Master Hojo discovered that I was using this as a journal. At first, he was quite angry, but then he realized that perhaps having a journal would be beneficial to me, so he gave me another book to _actually _record the data of our experiments in. I promised to still brush upon some of the topics in this journal, but not too much.

We wouldn't want this getting into the wrong hands, now would we?

^*^*^*^*^*^*

**Day 17**

We have just been assigned to work in the Shinra mansion on two new specimens. The mansion is the only thing still standing after Nibelheim went up in flames.

It is to my knowledge that the two men were once part of the SOLDIER program. When they arrived, however, they were nearly dead. My quick thinking and Hojo's brilliant idea saved their lives…and made them into another experiment for the Jenova cells.

How convenient for us!

Right now, they are enclosed within chambers of mako. Surely, without this constant treatment, they would die. If and when they should wake up, they will be grateful to have played such an important role in this scientific achievement.

I know _I_ would be.

^*^*^*^*^*^*

**Day 39**

Hojo has assigned me to continually monitor the vitals of the two specimens. Every now and then, Master Hojo has to leave; he _is _a remarkable scientist, after all. His skills are highly sought after by numerous individuals, which is natural for the professor.

So, right now, I am observing the two men. Their vitals are perfect. All body functions are at 100 percent. They only drawback is that they are still in a comatose state. When they wake up, Hojo and I hope that they will complete what we plan for them to do.

Become whole again. Form the reunion. Sephiroth…

^*^*^*^*^*^*

**Day 190**

It may just be me, but I could've sworn that I saw that the specimens were _awake_ a moment ago. Were they trying to send each other a message?

No. Impossible. The Jenova cells have not yet been completely absorbed into their bodies. There is no way that they could be conscious at this point. Not for a while yet.

But…perhaps these men are more powerful than we first believed?

* * *

_"Cloud, it seems like a huge chunk of this notebook was torn out...almost like Filix was trying to hide something?"_

_"You're right, Tifa..."_

**

* * *

**

Year 5

I have been quite busy these past few years. I have lost count of how many days I have been working with Master Hojo at my side, but I am certain that it has been at least 5 years. Seems like only a moment ago when I was first taken under Master Hojo's wing…

Now is not the time to reminisce.

Today, I am recording something terrible. The specimens…they have _escaped_! It makes no sense to me. How could they have broken through the chamber barriers? Hojo and I had calculated everything perfectly, in the hopes that something like this would never occur.

But it has.

I have failed.

^*^*^*^*^*^*

Word has just been sent to us that the experiments have been apprehended by Shinra's orders. They have been terminated by the SOLDIER ranks.

Good riddance, I say. Professor Hojo and I both agree that if they were so easily captured and defeated, then those clones were imperfect.

They were failed experiments.

Failed experiments are to be destroyed.

^*^*^*^*^*^*

Hojo and I have just relocated to a hidden laboratory underneath the Nibel Mountains. He has just explained to me that this is the place that he visited frequently on some of the times that he was _called away _on other business.

In all actuality, this laboratory houses another experiment of Master Hojo. I am beyond ecstatic to find out what this experiment looks like, and to discover what its true purpose is.

Hojo has not yet informed me of that information.

I will be patient.

^*^*^*^*^*^*

Master Hojo's intelligence never ceases to amaze me. This new experiment is pure brilliance at its best. She was acquired while she was on a mission for SOLDER in Junon several years ago. Another near-death case had occurred, apparently.

She has long since been cloistered in this underground laboratory.

I believe she was taken in even _before_ Master Sephiroth had burned down most of Nibelheim in his ire.

I almost feel sorry for that young fool. He was conceived by Professor Hojo and the beautiful Lucrecia, purely for the sake of scientific advancement. At least, that's how Hojo sees it. Lucrecia's pregnancy was the perfect way to create another aspect of the Jenova experiment: inject the womb with Jenova cells.

It was foolproof.

He was just as human as anyone else. The only difference was the remarkable amount of Jenova cells that were inhabiting his body. He had the strength of an entire army. For that reason, he would always believe that he was the son of Jenova, the alien lifeform, with godlike attributes.

...But he knows not that he is, and will always be, completely human...however godlike that may be.

To this day, I still shudder every single time I remember that Sephiroth, _the _perfect experiment, was defeated by that bumbling third class SOLDIER.

Even _that _young man turned out to be a failure after we used him as a specimen.

I can only hope that the new specimen that Hojo is working on turns out perfectly.

^*^*^*^*^*^*

She _is_ perfect. Everything about her…is perfect. Master Hojo did a great job, yet again, of choosing the right candidate for experimentation. Her name is Terra, I believe. The DNA that Hojo managed to inject into her bloodstream was seemingly impossible to find. I still cannot believe it. Every now and then, her _extra _appendages make themselves known. I believe that Hojo meant for them to always be present, but that is fine. We will work with what we have. She _is _perfect in all other aspects. So beautiful…She has a bit of a volatile side to her as well, but that only makes her more endearing, in my opinion.

She is to be constantly monitored in her specialized chamber. That is my job now that Master Hojo has been returning to this lab less and less frequently as of late. He went back to the Science Department of the Shinra building in Midgar because of rumors of Sephiroth sightings around Gaia.

Naturally, Hojo would want to get to the bottom of that puzzle. Sephiroth _is _his son, after all.

Once he gets a handle on the situation, he will return to us.

I'm sure of it.

^*^*^*^*^*^*

Hojo came back today, but only for a few hours. He seemed incredibly troubled. He wanted to pick up some supplies that were not available to him at the _other _lab, but he also needed to tell me something important.

He said that Sephiroth was still alive. But he was slightly worried that a newly-formed terrorist group might defeat him. Supposedly, the terrorist group's leader is one of the failed specimens that we thought had been killed on the outskirts of Midgar when he and the other one tried to escape from us. How interesting…

Nonetheless, Master Hojo has implored me to, in case of a rare emergency, open up his private locker in the backroom, should anything happen to him. In it is a letter to me, full of specific instructions on an experiment I am to create.

I am not worried, though. Nothing will happen to Master Hojo. He is invincible.

^*^*^*^*^*^*

I cannot believe my ears. Master Hojo…dead? Killed by an old experiment of his from many years past? The Turk…Vincent Valentine…his wife's ex-lover. He was part of the terrorist group as well. What a small world.

I _will _not believe this. Not until I have proof.

I will never open that locker to read the letter. I know I don't have to.

Hojo is not dead.

^*^*^*^*^*^*

I let Terra out of her chamber today, but I made sure that every part of her was securely shackled down. You can never be too careful.

I decided to temporarily release her for selfish reasons. It has been a very long time since Master…since anyone has visited this lab. I felt the need to have some semblance of a conversation with someone. Even if that someone is an experiment. It doesn't really matter to me at this point.

Maybe I'll talk to her about Hojo…and all of his old experiments and conquests…yes, that will make me feel better.

Much better.

^*^*^*^*^*^*

Terra wasn't too keen on hearing about the old experiments the other day. She went absolutely berserk on me, almost breaking the shackles I was using to restrain her. I guess she personally knew the two men that we had taken in shortly after Nibelheim's destruction…Zack and Cloud, I believe she called them?

Well, I haven't a clue as to why she reacted so irrationally. _Any_ of Hojo's experiments are to be admired. Well, except his failed experiments…but that's another story.

Terra just doesn't see what an honor it is to be experimented on by Hojo. Eventually, she will understand.

^*^*^*^*^*^*

I have just been informed that Sephiroth has summoned Meteor. We are all going to die in a few days' time. Unless, something…or someone stops him.

I'm not sure whether or not I want that to happen.

Sephiroth is the perfect experiment, remember.

^*^*^*^*^*^*

Cloud Strife and his terrorist group actually managed to conquer Sephiroth.

So, today, I have decided to read that letter. Maybe it will tell me how I can revive the perfect experiment.

^*^*^*^*^*^*

Yes, I now know what it is I have to do. Preparations have already been made for other failed experiments to gather and revive Sephiroth, however inadvertently that may be. They will find Jenova's head at the base of the Northern Cave.

I am to wait.

^*^*^*^*^*^*

Sephiroth has been defeated yet again, but I know that it is what was _meant_ to happen.

I still must wait.

And I have noticed that Terra has become incredibly antsy after hearing the news of the world's goings-on. Especially when she hears Sephiroth's name.

I wonder why…

^*^*^*^*^*^*

Hojo, the brilliant man he is, apparently left part of his spirit behind in his computer program. Why did I not think of that? Of course he would something so ingenious!

A major project he was working on, DeepGround, helped resurrect a piece of him. Unfortunately, that fool Valentine managed to defeat all of DeepGround before Master's plans could be successfully carried out.

I am saddened to hear that Omega did not have the chance to feast to its heart's content.

And I still must wait.

^*^*^*^*^*^*

It is now time.

I have _conveniently _opened Terra's chambers while I was not visible to her. She has escaped from me and is sure to look for Cloud and his little friends. That is exactly what I want to happen.

While she is gone, I will prepare a little gift for her here.

She has heard my plans and I know she will bring them back here to kill me for what I am planning.

I am sure of it.

^*^*^*^*^*^*

This message is specifically for Cloud Strife or any of his friends:

Congratulations. I'm truly thrilled you managed to find this notebook. That means that you must have also found my little gift? His name was Thetazor. I hope you were gentle with him. He was always a bit self-conscious about his odd shape.

Anyway, I wish to inform you that I am indeed resurrecting Sephiroth…and eventually Jenova, the beautiful goddess herself. I'm nearly done with it as you are reading this.

Any attempts you may have at defeating me or my beautiful experiments are futile. We cannot ever be defeated. However, if you wish to kill _Terra_, that would be fine with me. I'm quite angry with her at the moment anyway.

She was never as doting to me as she could have been. And after everything I've done for her…

I apologize, I didn't mean to get so personal.

My point, Cloud, is that you all will meet your end soon. Sephiroth and Jenova will be reborn. Although it _may_ be amusing to see you all try to defend this weak planet against their great power. Hmm…No matter.

I will see you soon, Cloud.

And I hope you enjoy my next…_series _of gifts for you and everyone else on this planet.

-Filix

* * *

"Cloud?" Tifa asked shakily. She shut the notebook and set it in her lap carefully. "What did Filix mean by…_gifts_?" She nervously looked up to see him staring out the window.

He made no reply.

"Cloud?" Tifa tried again.

Suddenly, the door slammed open. "Get yer moping asses downstairs _now_!" Cid barked out, spear in hand. "We got ourselves a problem!"

"What problem?" Cloud turned around to ask. "What's going on?"

Yuffie bolted into the room, to everyone's complete shock. That was the first time anyone had seen her outside of her room to do something other than grab a bite to eat or use the bathroom. "Seriously deformed monsters are on a rampage all throughout Edge, Junon, and tons of other major cities!" she explained in a hurried tone. "It looks like they've been…experimented on…or something."

Cloud and Tifa looked at each other.

"Filix's gifts?"

**

* * *

**

**A/N:**

2 months....? I am so sorry.

But thank you all so much for all the reviews, alerts, etc. And I hope this story is still enjoyable. I'm a bit self-conscious about it right now, to be perfectly honest, so any type of review will be taken to heart. Seriously. I just need to know where I'm at w/ everyone right now. Flames, compliments, anything…just let me know, please and thanks! =)


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